Process for making a healthy snack food

ABSTRACT

The present invention is directed towards a method for making a healthy snack food having an appearance and taste similar to conventional fried snack products without the use of an oil-frying process. The method of the present invention includes the steps of providing food slices from a starch-based food or dough. The food slices can be blanched and a controlled amount of oil can be added to enhance final organoleptical properties. The food slices are then rapidly dehydrated to a much lower moisture content in a primary drying step that simulates conventional frying dehydration rates. A food snack, such as a corn or potato-based snack, produced by this method is a low-fat, ready-to-eat snack having the conventional texture and taste associated with fried snack products.

This application is a continuation-in-part of prior U.S. Ser. No.11/458,592, filed Jul. 19, 2006; U.S. Ser. No. 11/686,027 filed Mar. 14,2007; and International Serial No. PCT/US2007/073820 filed Jul. 18,2007.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Technical Field

The present invention relates to an improved method for producingshelf-stable snack foods and especially low oil snack foods. Morespecifically, the present invention relates to a method whereby a uniquecombination of unit operations are used to produce a low-fat potatocrisp having organoleptical properties similar to those of traditionalfried potato crisps.

2. Description of Related Art

Conventional potato crisp products are prepared by the basic steps ofslicing peeled, raw potatoes, water washing the slices to remove surfacestarch, and frying the potato slices in hot oil until a moisture contentof about 1-2% by weight is achieved. The fried slices can then be saltedor seasoned and packaged.

Raw potato slices normally have a moisture content from about 75% toabout 85% by weight depending on the type of potato and theenvironmental growing conditions. When potato slices are fried in hotoil, the moisture present boils. This results in burst cell walls andthe formation of holes and voids which allow for oil absorption into thepotato slices yielding oil contents ranging from about 30% to about 45%by weight.

The oil content of potato crisps is important for many reasons. Mostimportant is its contribution to the overall organoleptic desirabilityof potato crisps, however, from the standpoint of good nutrition, it isdesirable to maintain a low level of oil or fat in potato crisps. Manyhealth conscious consumers desire a low fat alternative to thetraditional fried crisp having minimal taste differences from the friedproduct.

Further, a high oil content renders the crisps greasy or oily and henceless desirable to the consumer. Numerous attempts have been made in theprior art to reduce the oil content in potato crisps. Many attemptsinvolve thermally processing the potato slices in an oven or a microwaveto avoid the addition of oil to the potato crisp.

For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,292,540 claims a process for preparingpotato crisps by first pre-baking the potato slices at a temperature ofbetween about 121° C. to about 260° C. (250° F. to 500° F.) to removeabout 50% to about 80% of the moisture in the slice prior to microwaveheating the potato slices.

Similarly, U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,180,601; 5,202,139; and 5,298,707 all relateto a method and apparatus for producing fat-free snack crisps. Forexample, U.S. Pat. No. 5,298,707 discloses a first intensive microwavepre-baking step that reduces the moisture content in the potato tobetween about 25% and about 30% by weight. The '707 patent employs aspecial intermittent microwave field provided by a meandering wave guideand a special conveyor belt to reduce the problems of hard surface andtexture. However, according to U.S. Pat. No. 5,676,989, the approachdisclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,298,707, still produces an undesirable,relatively dense, hard crisp. Similarly, nearly all of the prior artprocesses result in a low fat snack food having organolepticalproperties far less desirable than the fried potato crisp counterpart.Thus, none of the prior art solutions have succeeded in mimicking thetaste and texture of fried potato crisps.

Consequently, a need exists to provide an economical method for makingreduced oil potato crisps having desirable organoleptical propertiessimilar to traditional potato crisps.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The novel features believed characteristic of the invention are setforth in the appended claims. The invention itself, however, as well asa preferred mode of use, further objectives and advantages thereof, willbe best understood by reference to the following detailed description ofthe illustrative embodiments when read in conjunction with theaccompanying drawings wherein:

FIG. 1 is a flow chart representation depicting numerous embodiments ofthe present invention;

FIG. 2 is a graphical representation of the dehydration and temperatureprofile of a plurality of potato slices undergoing an explosivedehydration step in accordance with one embodiment of the presentinvention;

FIG. 3 is an alternative graphical representation of the dehydrationprofile depicted in FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is a graphical representation of the dehydration profile of aplurality of potato slices in accordance with one embodiment of thepresent invention;

FIG. 5 is an approximate comparative graphical representation of thedata depicted in FIG. 3 and FIG. 4;

FIG. 6 depicts a prior art dehydration profiles of continuously friedpotato slices and batch kettle fried potato slices; and

FIG. 7 is a schematic perspective representation of one embodiment ofthe catenary belt microwave described herein with a cutaway showing theinterior of the microwave cavity;

FIG. 8 is a schematic cross-section representation of an alternativeembodiment of the catenary belt microwave described herein;

FIG. 9 is a schematic perspective representation of the rotating cavitymicrowave oven described herein; and

FIG. 10 is a graphical representation of the dehydration profile of aplurality of vegetable slices in accordance with one embodiment of thepresent invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

FIG. 1 is a flow chart representation depicting the preparation steps ofraw food-based slices in accordance with numerous embodiments of thepresent invention. The preferred sources of food substrates or slicesare cereal grains (e.g., corn, waxy corn, oats, wheat, sorghum, rice,oats, millet, rye, barley, and waxy rice), pulses (e.g. kidney beans,pinto beans, lentils, chickpea), tubers (i.e., potato, Jerusalemartichoke, yam), fruit, vegetables, and roots (i.e., tapioca, yucca,tarot, sweet potato, beet, carrot, arrowroot, cassaya, parsnip). In oneembodiment of the present invention, potatoes of the chipping varietycan be used. Potatoes of the chipping variety that can be used include,but are not limited to Saturna, Lady Rosetta, Lady Claire, Hermes, MarisPiper, Erntestolz, Agria, Atlantic, Monona, Norchip, Snowden, Kennebec,Oneida, and Tobique. Non-chipping and salad potato varieties can also beused including, but not limited to Marfona, King Edward, Yukon Gold,Desiree, Karlena, Charlotte, Nicola, Maris Peer and Estima. Similarly,French fry varieties such as Russet Burbank, and Bintje can be used. Itshould be noted that while chipping potatoes typically used for makingpotato crisps have relatively low levels of reducing sugars, and are nottypically used to make French fries or baked potatoes, any potato can beused in accordance with the present invention and the present inventionis not limited by physiological or biological make up of the potato.

Although potato slices are used to illustrate this invention, oneskilled in the art armed with the knowledge of this disclosure willrecognize that the resultant processing times and temperatures disclosedbelow may need to be adjusted to compensate for the use of a differentstarting material. For example, while the present invention is suitablefor the preparation of low-fat potato crisps made from potatoes, thepresent invention is also applicable to a wide variety of foodsubstrates which can be cut or otherwise formed into flat, generallythin slice-shaped portions. The present invention can be used to preparecrisps from raw vegetables, such as potatoes, and the like that havebeen cut into slices or, alternatively, doughs comprising masa, otherraw materials reduced to a formable state, re-hydrated dry ingredientsincluding potato flakes, or other food substrates may be ground into adough or paste, mixed with other ingredients and additives and thenshaped into configurations such as flat slice or cracker shapes forpreparation into a snack. Consequently, as used herein, the term “foodslice” encompasses pre-forms made from a dough.

Similarly, while the present invention is suitable for the preparationof low-fat potato crisps made from sliced potatoes, the resultantprocessing times and temperatures disclosed below may need to beadjusted to compensate for the use of a different starting material andshape. For example, potatoes can be cut into slices having one or moreflat sides or the potatoes can be sliced with one or both ridged sides.One advantage of ridged sliced potatoes is that the slices are lesslikely to stick together because of the reduced surface tension, whichresults from a reduced surface area available for contact between theslices. Consequently, less intensive surface drying may be required witha ridged slice. In addition, when a continuously agitated drying systemsuch as a rotating drum is used, the profile of a ridged slice canimpart greater resistance to mechanical folding or clumping actions thusproducing a higher proportion of singulated whole slices and a lowerproportion of excessively folded slices. In one embodiment, the potatoescan be cut into wedges or French fry-like sticks of suitable size. Inone embodiment, French-fry like sticks have cross-sectional widths ofabout 5 to about 6 millimeters. In another embodiment, potatoes are cutinto slabs of, for example, about 1 to about 3 mm depth, about 50 toabout 100 mm length and about 20 to about 50 mm width or other suitablesize known in the art. Because the French-fry like sticks, wedges, andslabs have different geometries, surface area to volume ratios, etc.than slices, the processing times and energies disclosed in each unitoperation below may require adjustments. Similarly, if the startingmaterial is further reduced in size (for example by comminution throughgrating, shredding, ricing, milling or grinding) and then reformed to adough, pellet, cluster, laminated snack or snack cake comprising theoriginal material and, optionally, a medley of additional ingredients,the resulting food slice can be processed to a desirable snack productunder appropriate conditions using the knowledge of this disclosure.Methods for preparing various pre-forms are known in the prior art asexemplified by U.S. Patent Application Publication No. US 2005/0202142,which discloses a method for making a clustered snack product or U.S.Patent Application Publication No. 2002/0142085, which discloses amethod for making a potato mash that is suitable for the production offood products, including potato snacks.

In one embodiment, Saturna or other suitable potatoes are washed andpeeled prior to the slicing step. Although peeling is optional, the peelcan contribute to a dominant earthy flavor when the finished foodproduct has low oil content. In one embodiment, the potatoes are slicedto a thickness of between about 1.0 millimeters to about 2.5 millimeters(0.040 inches and about 0.1 inches) in a slicer to provide a pluralityof potato slices. Other suitable slice thicknesses may be selected. Thepotatoes can be dry sliced, sliced in the presence of water, sliced inoil which may provide a desired oil addition to the slice and/oraccomplish a preconditioning step which achieves several benefits,including thermal treatment within the approximate temperature rangefrom about 60° C. to about 99.9° C., which has been shown to deactivateenzymes and gelatinize starch with organoleptic benefits. Such a processis referred to by Applicants as “thermal preconditioning”. If thermalpreconditioning is done in such a way that potato lipids are protectedagainst oxidation and hydrolysis, which has been shown to improve thelong term stability or shelf life of the product flavour, such processunit operations that achieve said thermal treatment with protection oflipids is referred to by Applicants as “Lipophilic preconditioning”steps. In one embodiment, potato slices are washed in a flume anddewatering belt to remove surface starch, scraps and excess oil, ifapplied, from the potato slices.

The potato slices are then thermally preconditioned, or, if preferred,lipophilically preconditioned. If a dough is used, the thermalpreconditioning step may have already occurred at a prior processingstage and additional thermal preconditioning may not be necessary. Ifthe thermal preconditioning occurred in a prior processing stage, thenthe thermal preconditioning step should be construed to have occurredwithin the meaning of claimed limitations of the present invention.Further, in a dough-based embodiment, any thermal preconditioning stepis optional. Thermal preconditioning is only a requirement where theproduct can benefit from pre-cooking the native starch or de-activatingenzymes. Lipophilic preconditioning is preferred where benefit can begained from thermal treatment in absence of oxygen, which will minimizelipid oxidation, and minimal externally-introduced water to minimizehydrolysis. Thermal preconditioning is not necessary for leaching sugarsor where native starch is already hydrated or gelatinized or whenenzymes have been deactivated in a prior processing step. For example,in one embodiment, steam cooked vegetables such as carrots can be usedas the food slice and no further thermal preconditioning step isnecessary. The purpose of the thermal preconditioning step is todeactivate enzymes such as peroxidase, polyphenol oxidase, andlipoxygenase that can cause undesirable “earthy green” flavors. In oneembodiment, thermal preconditioning can also be used to gelatinize thenative starch of the food slice in order to minimize raw flavours.

Thermal preconditioning can be accomplished in a number of ways,including a wet thermal preconditioning step 110, a dry thermalpreconditioning step 112 or an oil thermal preconditioning step(lipophilic preconditioning) 114. Wet thermal preconditioning, whichinvolves using water or steam to raise the temperature of the food sliceto the desired range to carry out enzyme deactivation and starchgelatinization, suffers a disadvantage in that native lipids in the foodslice, which are often contributors to organoleptic properties, can beoxidized or otherwise chemically changed due to the combination oftemperature, time and presence of water and oxygen and rate ofdeactivation of lipid enzymes, which reduces the consumer appeal of thefinal product flavour. The thermal preconditioning medium, temperatureand dwell time can vary based upon the shape and cross section of thefood slice and are preferably controlled such that the potato slices aresufficiently cooked to deliver a clean base flavor, absent of any raw,green taste.

In one embodiment, the slices are dry thermally preconditioned 112 at aslice temperature of about 90° C. to about 95° C. for about 10 to about120 seconds and more preferably for about 90 to about 100 seconds by arotary or conveyor infrared dryer or other suitable heating medium. Drythermal preconditioning is advantageous for starchy food slices since itavoids the introduction of excess moisture that may allow starch cellsto rupture or disintegrate, in turn releasing gelatinized starch andcreating difficulty due to adhesion of the food slice to other slices orsurfaces during processing. In one embodiment, dry thermalpreconditioning 112 is performed through conduction, for example usingheated conductive rollers or a heated flat ceramic or metal pan,conveyor belt or plate that may contact both sides of the slicesimultaneously for 10 seconds to 90 seconds depending on the processingtemperature in use, which will typically be about 60° C. to 160° C. Forthin food slices temperatures of 90° C. to 120° C. are preferred for 30to 90 seconds. Contacting both sides of the slice simultaneously ensuresthere is no lift or curl of the food slice away from the conductivesurface, which can reduce the effectiveness of blanching. Optionally,the plate may comprise a textured metal surface, for example as suppliedby RIMEX, or a non stick coating to improve slice handling. At highertemperatures surfaces may be perforated to ease escape of steam.

In an alternative embodiment dry thermal preconditioning is achievedwith microwaves, Radio Frequency or infra-red. Dry thermalpreconditioning 112 of other shapes such as French fry like sticks canrequire thermal preconditioning of two to four minutes and selection ofappropriate infra-red wavelength for adequate penetration of the foodslice. After dry thermal preconditioning 112, the food slices canoptionally be pre-dried 152 in a forced air oven to remove some initialwater to improve overall process efficiency and/or improve their surfacecharacteristics in order to improve handling and processability. The drythermally preconditioned 112 slices can then be routed to the oilingstep 160, discussed below.

In one embodiment, the food slices are lipophilically preconditioned 114by placing the slices into a warm oil flume, a batch kettle or acontinuous oil dip. ABCO, LYCO, PPM and Heat and Control are examples ofmanufacturers of suitable commercial equipment, which is commonly usedin the food industry for blanching in either water or oil and can beadapted in either rotary or linear form to achieve lipophilicpreconditioning described here. A linear water blancher available fromHeat and Control that uses a caterpillar conveyor with vanes to moveslices through the bath in compartments can be adapted to a suitable oilbath and will preferably use mild agitation only. A HEATWAVE fryingsystem available from Heat and Control of Hayward, Calif. USA can alsobe used. In one embodiment, slices are spread evenly distributed acrossthe exit conveyor of the thermal preconditioning step or lipophilicpreconditioning step for presentation to the next unit operation.

In the prior art, oil blanching is a term used to describe manyprocesses. These processes include thermal pre-conditioning as describedabove using oil, water or other suitable media. However blanching inprior art is typically done at relative high temperatures, such as 150°C. and above. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,204,133 titled “Process forPreparing Sliced Potato Products” and issued on Apr. 20, 1993, disclosesan oil blanching temperature of about 360° F., or 182° C., at Column 4,Line 55. Likewise, U.S. Pat. No. 4,608,262 titled “Method of MakingFrozen Potato Patties and the Products Formed Thereby” and issued onAug. 26, 1986, discloses oil blanching temperatures ranging from about325° F. to about 380° F., and preferably about 350° F. to 370° F., atColumn 3, Lines 7-8. However the relatively high temperatures in priorart also cause a problem in that food slices will also undergo somedegree of dehydration which allows ingress of significant levels of oilinto the slice structure. This is a particular problem when producing alow oil food product, since oil that has been absorbed into thestructure is more difficult to remove at a later stage. One additionalproblem of the higher temperature process, in the context of a rawvegetable slice, is the loss of moisture from cell walls which causesthe slice to lose turgidity and structure, and therefore become prone todamage during subsequent processing. For the purpose of this inventionthe method of lipophilic preconditioning is considered to be a timebased heat treatment where the heat and time combination is sufficientto inactivate enzymes and to gelatinize (‘cook’) native starch withnative water content but is below the evaporation temperature of waterin the blanching vessel. Therefore, at sea level, standard atmosphericpressure the maximum oil temperature used for Applicants' lipophilicpreconditioning step is about 99.9° C. In one embodiment, the foodslices are raised to a temperature that enables the native starch to behydrated (fully or partially gelatinized) by the inherent moisture ofthe potato slice in the absence of substantial quantities of externalwater or oxygen. A final slice temperature of about 60° C. to about99.9° C. during a lipophilic preconditioning step of about 30 to about600 seconds in duration, or more preferably, for a thin food slice, afinal slice temperature of about 75° C. to about 99° C. for treatmentlasting between about 45 seconds and about 180 seconds is sufficient foroptimal flavor benefit, slice rigidity and subsequent handling, and ispreferred by Applicants for the processes described herein. Longerdurations than 600 seconds will still achieve the technical effectsdescribed but will increasingly become less commercially attractive dueto the increased size of manufacturing equipment. More preferable is alipophilic preconditioning step oil temperature of about 75° C. to about99° C. with a duration of about 60 seconds to about 120 seconds. Themost preferred ranges for Applicants' lipophilic preconditioning stepare an oil temperature of about 85° C. to about 95° C. for a duration ofabout 60 seconds to about 100 seconds.

An advantage of the lipophilic preconditioning step is to preserve minorconstituents of the food slice that make important contributions toflavor and color that may be solubilised or otherwise impaired if usingconventional water or steam blanching. In addition, avoiding removal ofthese ingredients and other potato constituents, by using a non-leachingprocess such as lipophilic preconditioning, is advantageous inpreserving maximum production yield. Although no frying is involved, thetechnique of lipophilic preconditioning as disclosed here brings theflavor of the finished chip much closer to its fried counterpart whencompared to other blanching methods that may be used to produce productswith similar oil contents. In this way, the lipophilic preconditioning114 method using the unique time and temperature disclosed hereovercomes a significant hurdle to the taste acceptability of reducedoil, non-fried food slices disclosed in the prior art, which eithersuffer from raw and green flavour notes due to the absence of anyblanching method or suffer a foreshortened shelf life due to thedegradation of flavour caused by conventional blanching methods oroxidation after processing. The Applicants' lipophilic preconditioningstep has been shown to protect the sensitive, polyunsaturated lipidsthat are naturally present in the substrate materials of the food slicefrom degradation. Degradation results in undesirable flavors,particularly those derived through oxidation pathways, in the finishedchip and can arise from oxidative or hydrolytic stress caused by theprocessing conditions or arise in the finished, reduced oil food sliceduring storage in a pack due to oxidation of, for example, but notlimited to, potato lipids, rice lipids or soy lipids. Therefore, anadvantage of the lipophilic preconditioning step is to extend the shelflife of packaged potato chips, from as little as two to four weeks whenusing conventional blanching methods for example water or steam, to thenorms associated with the packaged snacks category in FMCG markets.

Without being bound by theory, the inventors believe the lipophilicpreconditioning step as described in the above embodiments is a lowstress processing method that minimizes exposure to enzymatic,hydrolytic or oxidative reactions of lipids in the food slice andsubsequently provides a protective coating at the cellular level of thefood slice during processing and possibly also once in its finished chipform. Therefore, an advantage of the lipophilic preconditioning step isto control the contribution of flavours derived from the food slicesubstrate and the food slice oil to the final chip so that eachcomponent contributes an optimum balance of flavours to the final chip.When the food slice substrate is potato, the lipophilic preconditioningstep suppresses undesirable flavour reactions, in particular potatolipid oxidation, and promotes desirable flavour reactions. The relativecontribution of flavour compound classes including, but not limited to,aldehydes, strecker aldehydes, ketones, alcohols, alkyfuran or pyrazinescan be positively influenced with the processing method disclosed. Thoseskilled in the art will understand that the use of lipophilicpreconditioning, to influence pyrazines can also be applied to influenceand minimize similar chemical reaction pathways, for example acrylamideformation, for which pyrazine is sometimes used as a chemical marker.The ability to control formation of acrylamide is a surprising resultgiven that reducing sugars are not leached from the potato, and sugarsare the principal reagent forming acrylamide. Without being limited bytheory, one possible explanation for this is that the lipophilicpreconditioning step (and specifically conditions described in the aboveembodiments) influences the availability of reactants in the food slicebase to participate in reactions commonly associated with food cookingand drying and in particular potato food chemistry. For example,swelling of the potato starch may cause immobilization or partialimmobilization of the cell wall constituents in a potato slice, andparticularly reducing sugars such as glucose, which may be driven to theslice surface, cell walls or other interstitial locations from where itis sterically difficult to participate in Maillard reactions, inparticular with Asparagine.

When potato slices are lipophilically preconditioned the loss ofwater-soluble constituents such as sugars, which are essential to thedesirable final colour and flavour of the potato chip, are avoided.Equally, the loss of crispness in texture that is typically associatedwith potato chips that have been blanched with hot water is avoided.Therefore, the potato slices are still suitable for drying in aconventional continuous or batch fryer to make a potato chip to thestandard expected by consumers of high quality brands such as Lay's™potato chips today.

Those skilled in the art will understand that similar starch swellingand hindrance of reducing sugar availability can be achieved via any ofthe thermal preconditioning techniques described herein. However, thepreferred embodiment that achieves low acrylamide formation whilst alsoprotecting the desirable flavour compound classes defined herein, is anynon-leaching thermal preconditioning technique, where the term leachingrelates to the loss of sugars or other flavour compounds from the potatoto the preconditioning medium. Suitable non-leaching thermalpreconditioning techniques that reduce acrylamide formation but do notcompromise flavour include, but are not limited to, any method thatswells starch without leaching flavour compound classes describedherein, dry thermal preconditioning as described herein, using anysuitable source of heat energy, non-leaching media which are thermallystable within the temperature conditions required such as oils, fats,synthetic oils, saturated aqueous solutions or marinades as described inthis application, or any food-grade, non-leaching material which iscapable of being itself heated and enveloping the slice so as to induceheat transfer to the slice whilst being incapable of itself carrying orsolubilising flavour compounds. The flavour benefit is clearlynoticeable to consumers of potato chips when steam blanching, the bestthermal preconditioning method known in the art for manufacturing lowoil potato chips, is compared to other thermal preconditioning methods,particularly lipophilic preconditioning. In multiple tests, consumerswho ate salted potato chips treated with steam prior to explosive dryingscored the product 6.2 for overall liking on a 9 point scale, whereas,salted potato chips prepared by lipophilic preconditioning scored 6.8When consumers compared potato chips prepared by these two methods, 66%preferred the chips that were prepared by lipophilic preconditioning.This statistically significant preference is attributable to severalorganoleptic qualities in particular the flavour difference between theproducts as evidenced by the significantly different liking scores foundin favour of chips prepared using a lipophilic preconditioning stepversus a steam preconditioning step for overall flavour (6.9:6.2) andaftertaste (6.4:5.9) using the 9 point scale. Therefore, an importantbenefit of the lipophilic preconditioning step is to enable a non-friedpotato chip with an oil content less than about 20% to be optimized forconsumer appeal. A potato chip made with half the fat of regular potatochips using the applicants' disclosure will be perceived by consumers tohave an overall acceptability that is not significantly different toLays, the best selling potato chip brand worldwide.

The lipophilic preconditioning step is suitable as a pre-treatment stepto non-fried and fried snack food production. The lipophilicpreconditioning step can be used to process whole, cubed or other dicedforms of vegetable or potato to make a pre-form dough for thisinvention. The dough can then be formed and explosively dried in amicrowave oven as disclosed in this invention. Further, the lipophilicpreconditioning step can replace conventional blanching methods in theproduction of frozen potato products or potato flakes and granules andother potato products that are subject to lipid oxidation. Thelipophilic preconditioning step can substitute both or either of thepre-cooking (typically around 70 to 75 Celsius) and cooking (typicallyat or approaching 100 Celsius) steps commonly performed using steam inflakes, granules, french fries and croquettes production today.

Applicants' lipophilic preconditioning step also acts as an oil additionstep to the raw slice. Using one of the subsequent oil removal methodsdisclosed in this invention the ingress of oil into the food sliceduring dehydration can be controlled to a specified level. A furtheradvantage of lipophilic preconditioning is to avoid presenting excesswater to the starch in the food slice and therefore to minimizegelatinization of surface starch, which can assist with subsequenthandling. Even though temperatures are maintained below waterevaporation temperatures, lipophilic preconditioning can result in somemoisture loss from the food slices. This is thought to be due to freewater in or on the food slice being displaced into the oil. The amountof water displaced will in part be dependant on the amount of free wateron the food slice before the lipophilic preconditioning step. Therefore,it is preferable to remove as much free water as possible before a foodslice enters the lipophilic preconditioning step 114.

To achieve this, surface drying techniques disclosed later in thisinvention can be applied before the lipophilic preconditioning step.Since the lipophilic preconditioning temperature is lower than theboiling point of water, water may become suspended or emulsified in theoil. In this situation the processor may elect to use a settling sump orsimilar device in order to drain the water or divide oil which iscirculating so that a portion is routed through an evaporation chamberheated at >100° C.

In one embodiment, the slices are treated by flash frying for a suitabletime and temperature to deactivate enzymes in place of a lipophilicpreconditioning step. Flash frying is considered to be a time based heattreatment where the heat and time combination is sufficient toinactivate enzymes and evaporate a portion of water in the flash fryingvessel. Therefore the minimum flash frying temperature is that at whichthe water inside the potato cell matrix boils, commonly observed to be100° C. at standard atmospheric pressure. Similar equipment to that usedfor lipophilic preconditioning step can be used for flash frying. Forexample, in one embodiment, potato slices are flashed fried for about 7seconds to about 10 seconds in oil at about 180° C. Alternatively, thepotato slices can be flashed fried for about 15 to about 20 seconds inoil having a temperature of about 150° C. to about 160° C. Theseconditions may be preferred for thicker food slices to ensure adequateheat transfer and slice rigidity for subsequent handling.

More moisture is lost if the lipophilic preconditioning step 114 isreplaced by flash frying which in turn provides the opportunity for oilto be absorbed into the slice. For example, in one embodiment, flashfried slices comprise a moisture content of about 50% to about 55% byweight. Consequently, in one embodiment, about 30% to about 40% of thestarting weight of moisture in a potato can be lost when the lipophilicpreconditioning step 114 is replaced by flash frying, which can improveoverall process efficiencies. One benefit of flash frying is tosimultaneously deactivate enzymes, add a limited amount of oil to thefood slice and pre-dry the substrate in one step. Finished chip oilcontent can be controlled using one of the subsequent oil removalmethods disclosed in this invention.

Any oil or fat is suitable for the process disclosed including vegetableoil, animal fats or synthetic oils, for example coconut oil, corn oil,cottonseed oil, palm oil, palm olein, safflower oil, high oleicsafflower oil, palm stearin, soybean oil, olive oil, rice bran oil,sunflower oil, mid or high oleic sunflower oil, rape seed oil, lard,tallow, Olestra™, sucrose polyesters, medium chain fatty acids or ablend of different oils. The choice of oil can be used to influence thefinal flavor and mouth feel of the finished crisp as well as thenutrition profile. Selecting an indigestible oil (e.g. Olestra™) enablesthe manufacture of snacks with a lower calorific density thanconventional snack foods, if combined with a food slice of suitablecomposition.

The slice can then undergo oil removal 142 to the desired level. Oilremoval is assisted by the wet and raw to partially cooked nature of thefood slice because the oil is principally on the slice surface and hasnot been substantially absorbed into the slice interior. The slice ispreferably de-oiled directly from the lipophilic preconditioning stepwhile hot but can be cooled to a temperature at or below ambient beforeoil is removed. Oil removal can be performed using wet methods. In oneembodiment the oil removal step 142 can occur in a linear steam blanchercommercially available from ABCO, where the food slices are transportedthrough a chamber filled with atmospheric pressure steam by a series ofsteam manifolds above and below the belt. A 20 to 60 second exposuretime using this method is sufficient to reduce oil on a thin food sliceto less than 18% oil, less than half the fried counterpart, andtypically to around 12% oil in the final chip. Alternatively, the slicescan be transported through a perforated rotating drum made from metal ora suitable heat resistant polymer (e.g. polypropylene or PTFE). Steamcan be introduced via a manifold inserted along the center of therotating drum, alternatively the drum can be mounted inside a chamberwith circulating steam. Sparging the tumbling slices with steam at 0.7bar for 20 seconds is sufficient to fully de-oil to 3% or less in thefinal chip. Mounting an external steam or air knife angled toward theouter circumference of the drum will assist this process step bydislodging any slices that stick to the internal circumference of thedrum.

In one embodiment, the oil removal step 142 can occur by washing in ahot water bath (typically about 50° C. to about 65° C.) or ambient coldwater bath (typically about 10° C. to about 25° C.) either of whichoptionally may contain marinade ingredients, such as sodium chloride,calcium chloride or pH modifying substances. This oil removal methodremoves almost all available surface oil to so that a thin potato slice,which is subsequently dried, will typically contain less than or equalto 3% oil. A model No. PSSW-MCB speed washer available from Heat andControl is one example of a suitable water bath. Similar results areachieved if the water bath is combined with or replaced by a series ofpressurized water jets, knives or air atomized water nozzles mountedabove and below the slices, which are transported on an open weaveconveyor that may optionally use an upper hold down conveyor. Theadvantage of water jets is to provide more control over de-oilingthrough variables such as water flow rate, water pressure, angle ofwater knife and exposure time. Water jets are an efficient method of oilremoval to low oil contents. Levels less than 3% oil are feasible and arange of 5% to 10% can be achieved in the finished chip with acceptableprocess control. In one preferred embodiment, a water knife positionedtransversely above and below the food slice product transport belt canbe used to wash oil from the surfaces of the slices. After the waterknife, a high velocity air knife system, for example the Heat andControl Air Sweep commonly used for de-watering during potato chipprocessing, is preferably used to remove any excess water or oil mix onthe slice. A water flow rate of less than 0.25 litres to 3 litres ofwater per minute per nozzle or preferably 0.5 to 1 litre per minute pernozzle is typically sufficient for controlled oil removal to 5% to 10%oil content in the finished chip. Effective de-oiling can be achievedwith contact times between the food slice and water knife of around 0.25seconds to 1 second, which is approximately 2 to 4 metres per minute ona belt conveyor. Longer exposure times, for example 5 seconds, or higherwater flow rates, for example 6 litres per minute, are feasible but onlynecessary when very low oil levels, for example less than 3%, arerequired.

In the most preferred embodiment, to reduce the amount of water used orto avoid removing too much oil, a water spray comprising a mist of finedroplets of water can be applied to the food slice to act as a gentleroil removal media. This effect can be demonstrated with a handheldgarden spray or by adding compressed air to the water spray nozzle.Water temperature can be varied to suit the food slice being processedhowever ambient to cool water is preferred for starchy food slices likepotato that are susceptible to gelatinization in contact with excesswarm or hot water. Water and oil pooled on top of the slices afterpassing through the water knife or water spray is very mobile and caneither be drained or very easily blown or sucked off the food slicesurfaces with air knives and or vacuum suction above or below the foodslices. While spreading the slices to minimize overlap improves theconsistency of oil removal slice to slice, it is not necessary tomonolayer the food slices to achieve an acceptable average oil contentand range in the finished product. Therefore, controlled exposure towater in this way does not require a monolayer presentation of foodslices to successfully remove oil and the use of air knives issufficient to separate the slices to remove remaining water/oil mix forfurther processing, which makes cold water a preferred medium for simpleand cost effective de-oiling. As with other oil removal methods, adisplaced water/oil mix can be separated in a settling tank or viacentrifuge in order to quickly reclaim the oil which can then be reusedin the lipophilic preconditioning step to minimize unnecessary wastage.

Slices from oil removal steps involving wet media can be furtherprocessed using the surface drying and pre-drying methods disclosedlater in this invention. However, for some food slices the processor mayfind it preferable to use a oil removal method that minimizes or fullyeliminates the exposure of the food slice to wet steam or water. Oilremoval in this way can avoid product handling issues that occur whenstarch on the surface of a food slice becomes sticky due togelatinization in the presence of heat and water or condensate. In oneembodiment an oil knife is used in a similar way to a water knife inorder to dislodge the bulk oil from the surface of the food slice andreplace the surface oil of the potato slice with a very thin coating ofoil. One advantage of the oil knife method is to avoid the introductionof water, steam or air that may damage the quality of the oil as it isremoved, gelatinize starch or expose the slice substrate to reactionsthat may degrade its flavour and to reduce the need for oil and waterseparation processes downstream.

Oil removal 142 can be achieved on a linear drain belt which mayoptionally be assisted by warm environmental temperatures, for example90 C similar to the lipophilic preconditioning step, so that the oilmaintains a low viscosity in order to improve its mobility. Oil mobilityon the slices can be further encouraged by gravity through an incline orvibration during conveying. This straight forward drainage method canproduce high quality chips with reduced oil contents, especially whenused prior to a pre-dry microwave 154 or explosive microwave drying step200 where the internal steam pressure forces a further proportion of theoil to the surface of the slice from where it is drained by escapingsteam or removed through the mechanical action of tumbling.

Blowing cool, ambient, warm or hot air onto the food slice surfaces canfurther assist with a simple oil removal step. This method can bedemonstrated by the use of a hot air paint stripping gun available atmost hardware stores. Air temperatures above 120 C are most efficient atremoving oil with typical airflow rates of 4.5 to 5.5 m/s. Hightemperatures (e.g. 180 C to 200 C) can cause surface damage or excessivedrying to the food slice and should therefore be avoided. Airtemperature, air velocity at the slice surface, exposure time and angleof impingement can all be used as variables to control the amount of oilremoved. An exposure time of 5 to 90 seconds or preferably 10 to 20seconds and an impingement angle close to 90 degrees is preferred foreffectiveness of oil removal and ease of product handling.Humidification of the air may further assist the oil removal process.The oil removal method may also be carried out by using a series ofpressurized air manifolds or air knives mounted above and/or below anopen mesh transport belt. Oil contents around half that of friedcounterparts can be achieved. For example a thin potato slice may havefinished oil content after drying of 15% to 18% compared to a friedcounterpart of around 36%.

To further improve the amount of oil removed, the manifolds can befitted with nozzles selected to increase the degree of impingement ofthe oil-removing fluid on the food slice surface. For example, amanifold fitted with slotted nozzles SL31 supplied by Delevan SprayTechnologies or VEEJET H1/4USS from Spraying systems company and mountedalmost perpendicular to a linear transport belt at a distance of 10 mmto 50 mm but preferably 10 mm to 25 mm above and below the food slicesurface create a physical curtain or knife of gaseous fluid throughwhich the food slice is transported while the surface oil is held backor blown back. By adjusting the gaseous fluid pressure, nozzle height,nozzle impingement angle or exposure time the oil content in the finalchip can be controlled. A manifold pressure of 1.0 to 7.0 bar butpreferably 1.5 to 3.0 bar is sufficient to reduce the oil in a foodslice to approximately 15% in 5 seconds contact time for the orientationdescribed.

Steam is a more effective method of removing oil than air and achievesthe same oil content more quickly Food slices can be almost fullyde-oiled with steam in a single pass to less than 3% oil in the finishedchip provided the oil removal equipment is maintained substantially freeof excess oil. The exact process conditions must be optimized for thefood slice being treated with longer exposure times and higher pressuresor fluid velocities favoring greater oil removal. However, a reducingexponential return can be expected between energy expended and amount ofoil removed so the exact process conditions also depend on the level ofoil to which the food slice is to be reduced. In a preferred embodimenta steam knife or manifold fitted with fan shape nozzles, for exampleSL31 supplied by Delevan Spray Technologies or VEEJET H1/4USS fromSpraying systems company, is mounted at 20 mm to 30 mm above and belowfood slices exiting the warm oil dip. In one embodiment, saturated steamis delivered through the manifold at 0.5 to 3.0 bar steam pressure toreduce the oil content to between 14% to 7% by weight of dried foodslice. Food slices may be presented to the single pass steam oil-removalcurtain on a belt conveyor traveling at 2 to 4 metres per minute to givean approximate contact time between slice area and steam of 0.25 secondsto 1 second. Higher steam pressures result in lower oil contents butobey a power law of diminishing returns whereby the benefit of furthermarginal oil reductions for steam pressures above 3 bar for the manifoldheight disclosed must be evaluated versus other effects that may beinduced, for example slice displacement on the conveyor. Longer contacttimes, or higher water phase content of the steam can also be used toreduce the oil content further.

The oil removal chamber will benefit from a top and bottom belt tocontrol food slice transport and maintain good presentation of the foodslice to the oil-removing curtain by minimizing slice agitation.Continuous belt cleaning and vapour extraction to remove excess oil willassist with maintaining a clean local environment in the oil removalunit, which will benefit the ability of the processor to control thefood slices to the target oil level. Extraction can be achieved withsuction plenums mounted above and optionally below the transportconveyor. The oil removal effectiveness and evenness may also benefitfrom briefly fluidizing the slices to aid distribution and separation,for example by utilizing several manifolds or knives expelling air oranother gaseous fluid before the oil removal media is encountered. Inone embodiment steam as the oil removal media is used to fluidize theslices. The top and bottom belts should be constructed with a large openmesh area and one or both may optionally have resistant but compressibleproperties, provided for example by thin gauge metal wire or rubberpolymer constructs, that assist the distribution of slices exposed toturbulent conditions caused by air or other gaseous fluid flows. Whilepressurized air, superheated steam or other dry gases are suitable oilremoval media, steam is preferred as the most effective gaseousoil-removal medium.

Alternative oil removal media include, but are not limited, tosuperheated steam (dry steam) or nitrogen. Superheated steam may be usedat high temperatures, for example 160 C, however marginally superheatedtemperatures of, for example, 105 C simplify the processingrequirements. These media offer an advantage over air since they excludeoxygen from contact with the oil or food slice surface, which avoidsoxidation and preserves quality. Similarly nitrogen or super heatedsteam offer an advantage over wet steam since they exclude water fromcontact with the oil or food slice surface, which avoids hydrolysis ofoil and preserves food slice quality and structure. Dry media and wetmedia may be used on their own or in any combination with each other forexample, and illustration only, steam stripping followed by nitrogenstripping. The processor may select the most suitable method taking intoaccount the properties of the food slice being treated and the oilreduction desired.

In one embodiment steam is reclaimed from the primary explosive dryingstep and compressed for use at the oil removal step.

In one embodiment, oil removal is performed in a rotary drum to achievea fat content of less than half the fried counterpart. The oil removaldrum may be based on a rotary dryer with a hot air manifold mountedinternally or can be a perforated rotating drum, that is optionallymounted inside a hot air circulating oven, and has a directional hot airmanifold mounted along its center. As described above, other media forexample nitrogen, steam or superheated steam may be used as analternative to hot air.

In one embodiment, centrifugal oil removal can be used to lower the oilcontent in step 142 to the desired level. In a further embodiment, oilremoval is achieved through contact with surfaces that absorb the oil ormechanical skimming of the slice surface by the use of belts, brushes,rollers or presses.

Some food slices, for example starchy potato slices, that have beentreated with hot media to remove oil will benefit from cooling toimprove subsequent handling in the non-oil drying process. Therefore,the surface properties of the slice may be modified to reduce stickinessby cooling and removing condensate from the slice. Slices may be carriedon an open conveyor or passed through a cooling tunnel. More rapidcooling can be achieved with pressurized air knives or a series ofmanifolds operating with compressed air and optionally equipped withselected nozzles to increase impingement on the slice surface. A drymedium is preferred for cooling but can be selected from air, nitrogen,a combination or other means. Cooling is not a necessary step if foodslices do not exhibit sticky surface properties, for example as a resultof lower starch availability. In this case it is preferable for energyefficiency to hot transfer the food slices at around 70 C to 90 C intothe next processing stage.

The oil removal step 142 can be used to dial in and control the desiredoil content to a very narrow range. In one embodiment, the food slicesare treated such that the finished, dried food product comprises an oilcontent of less than 3% by weight. However, less intense oil removal candeliver higher oil levels in a controlled manner and in one embodiment,the food slices are treated to an oil content of less than 10% andpreferably between 5% and 8% or to an oil content of less than 15% andpreferably between 11-13% by weight of finished chip. Alternatively,minimal oil removal is applied to deliver a slice having about 17% toabout 25% oil by weight of the finished chip or a simple drain belt withno active oil removal is used to deliver a slice having 25% to 35% oilby weight of finished chip. Consequently, one advantage of thelipophilic preconditioning step 114 using a warm oil dip is the abilityto pre-select and control the oil levels in a food slice through acombination of the oil blanching and the oil removal conditions appliedbefore drying.

Food slices prepared using either lipophilic preconditioning or flashfrying followed by oil removal and cooling or alternatively oil removal,pre-drying and cooling may go on to be fully dried or, alternatively,may be packed as a half product suitable for finishing by heating athome or at a secondary location, for example a vending or cateringoutlet. Food slices intended for this application are preferably treatedby an oil removal step to less than 15% fat and more preferably to lessthan 10% fat equivalent of a dried chip. The advantage of thispreparation method is to deliver food slices that retain a structuraloil content that benefits final chip flavor yet are substantiallynon-oily and non-adhering on their surface and therefore are suitablefor packaging into known formats that may optionally use preservativetechnologies, for example inert gas flushing, vacuum packing, retort,scavenging or aseptic packing. Those skilled in the art may recognizethat pasteurization or sterilization of the half-product may be achievedprior to packing by selection of appropriate time-temperaturecombinations during the oil removal step. The oil removal step ensuresthe half-product retains some oil for flavor but is not significantlyoily on the surface. The half-product cleanly releases from flexible orsemi-flexible packaging structures to individual slices for convenientfinish cooking via the preferred method (for example pan frying with orwithout oil, hot air oven, infra-red toasting oven, steam oven ormicrowave) at the preferred location (for example at home or at avending, catering or snacks manufacturing site). Thus, one advantage ofthis preparation method is to enable the end user to experience a lowoil, healthy and convenient hot snack product.

Those skilled in the art will recognize that partial drying of thehalf-product prepared with this method can further improve itssuitability for packaging and further increase convenience for the enduser. Non-oil par-drying methods, for example baking in a microwaveoven, impingement oven or conventional hot air oven are preferred and,using the methods described later in this disclosure the moisturecontent will preferably be reduced below the starch melting point,typically less than 1 gram of moisture per gram of solids in potatobased foods, or more preferably below the starch glass transition point,typically less than 0.25 grams of moisture per gram of solids in potatobased food substrates. One advantage over heating a half-productcompared to a regular dried snack is that the higher moisture contentensures a more consistent and pleasant finished snack.

In an alternative embodiment to dry thermal preconditioning orlipophilic preconditioning, the potato slices can be thermallypreconditioned 110 in water or steam at about 60° C. to about 99.9° C.for between about 50 seconds and about 3 minutes depending on the heattransfer required by the food slice dimensions. For example, a potatostick (French fry shape) food slice typically requires 3 minutes atabout 80° C. to about 90° C. whereas a thin potato slice or slabtypically requires about 90 seconds at about 80° C. to about 90° C.

Optionally, after thermal preconditioning in water 110, the potatoslices are then washed 120 in a water wash to further reduce gelatinizedsurface starch. The washing step may use hot water (typically about 50°C. to about 65° C.) to improve starch solubilisation. In one embodiment,the washing step 120 continuously uses cold water (typically about 15°C. to about 25° C.) that quenches the thermal preconditioning processand improves the crispness of the final product texture, which isthought to be due to retrogradation of starch components. Either washmay optionally contain marinade ingredients. Removal of excessgelatinized surface starch will lessen the tendency of the potato slicesto stick or clump together in later drying steps. A model No. PSSW-MCBspeed washer available from Heat and Control, Inc., of Hayward, Calif.USA can be used to remove the surface starch with hot or cold water. Inone embodiment, a cold water wash 120 of about 15° C. to about 20° C.containing from about 0.5% up to about 4% salt in solution can be used.One advantage of salt marinade is to improve the coupling efficiencyand/or intensity of the primary, explosive drying step 200 when amicrowave is used. Alternatively, in one embodiment, a hot water wash120 can help to solubilise excess starch gelatinized by blanching ahigh-starch food or specific potato varieties noted to releasesignificant amounts of free starch (e.g. Atlantic) to aid in subsequentprocessing. In an alternative embodiment the gelatinized starch isremoved by pressurized water sprays at 1.5 to 3.0 bar mounted at 25 to50 mm above the transport belt or above and below the transport belt toimpinge on the slice surface. Both an upper and lower belt can be usedto contain the product during transport through the high-pressure waterjets, which act to de-gum the product surface and reduce the ability ofslices to adhere to each other.

Optionally, during, prior to, or after any thermal preconditioning step110 112 114, the food slices can be marinated meaning that they areexposed to a solution having one or more dissolved compounds to improvethe coupling efficiency of the microwave step or modify the finalproduct attributes. Consequently, in one embodiment, the marinadecomprises one or more ingredients selected from protective andanti-oxidant ingredients such as sodium sulphite or bisulphate, ascorbicacid (water soluble) or tocopherols (oil soluble); color enhancers suchas beta-carotene, and annatto; pH modifiers such as citric or aceticacids; ionic salts such as potassium, sodium or calcium chlorides;enzymes such as glucose oxidase, laccase, lipase, pentosanase,transglutaminase, asparaginase, cellulase or amylase; carbohydratesugars such as glucose, fructose, maltose, trehalose, and maillardreaction ingredients or long chain carbohydrates such as carageenan,arabic or guar gums, carboxymethyl cellulose, hydroxypropyl cellulose,native or modified starches or protein. Because the objective of thethermal preconditioning step 110 112 114 is to deactivate enzymes ratherthan reduce the potato slice glucose content, as in classic potato crispfrying, it can be beneficial for the thermal preconditioning medium tobe fully saturated either by added marinade ingredients or by thestarches solubilised from the food slice itself so that no furtherinherent flavor compounds are solubilised and lost which can lead to abland flavor in the final crisp.

The thermal preconditioning, marinade, or washing system can beconfigured so that slices exit in a way that maximizes separationbetween slices and minimizes overlap on the next transport section ofthe process line. A speed wash, available from Heat and Control ofHaywood, Calif., USA, is an example of suitable equipment to achievethis in a way that will improve the ease of processing in later unitoperations.

The potato slices can then optionally be dewatered 130 to remove surfacewater and reduce surface tension between slices to prevent clumping inlater drying steps by contact with hot or cold air knives for about 2 toabout 3 seconds. In one embodiment, the dewatering step reduces the freewater (e.g. unbound water outside the potato slice picked up in thewashing or blanching stages) from about 20% by weight to about 7 toabout 10% by weight.

Surface moisture can be removed using an air sweep-type dryer thatemploys air knives. In one embodiment, air knives comprise heated orunheated (ambient) jets of air that are directed above the washed potatoslice while vacuum suction carries away the dislodged moisture. In oneembodiment, low pressure air (e.g. about 1.0 to about 1.4 bar) having atemperature of between about ambient and about 120° C. and a flow speedof between about 12 and about 16 meters per second can be used forsufficient time to remove the free surface water. In one embodiment, amulti-pass air knife, longitudinal air tunnel, or Turbo Air Sweep asmanufactured by Heat and Control can be used. In an alternativeembodiment the slices are carried on a chain link, perforated or meshconveyor under and above a series of fine air knifes generated bymanifolds at 1.5 to 3 bar pressure fitted with slotted nozzles suppliedby Delevan Spray Technologies and mounted perpendicularly at 10 to 50 mmabove and below the slices. A top and bottom conveyor belt arrangementmay be used to control slice agitation and achieve effective surfacewater removal.

In one embodiment, the surface moisture is substantially removed in asurface drying step 140 to prevent sticking and clumping in later unitoperations and delivers the slices evenly distributed across a beltwhich is sufficiently wide and fast enough to ensure even coverage withminimal overlap. While monolayered slices may be considered the idealprocess condition and has been cited as a necessary arrangement step inprior art applications (e.g. U.S. Pat. No. 5,298,707), it is importantto appreciate that monolayering is not required for this invention andsliced food will be converted into individual finished crisps at the endof the process. Therefore, partial overlap of at least two slices isacceptable, which significantly simplifies the production process,reduces footprint and improves overall economics. Consequently, in oneembodiment, transport, oiling or drying belt coverage comprises apartial overlap of two or more slices and may use a perforated beltconstructed from metal links, which may optionally have a non-stickcoating or use a polymer belt such as polypropylene, polyester orpolytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE), which may optionally be tessellated orperforated to further reduce surface area contact and incidence ofproduct adhesion to the transport belt.

In one embodiment, for those substrates where subsequent handlingrequires a very dry surface, surface water removal can be furtherenhanced by routing the potato slices from air knives to an airimpingement or air jet impingement oven for between about 30 to about180 seconds or more preferably from about 60 to about 120 seconds in airhaving a temperature of between about 60° C. to about 160° C. or morepreferably about 120° C. to about 140° C. The time/temperaturecombination should be selected to dry the slice surface as fast aspossible at the highest temperature that avoids excessive gelatinizationof any surface starch. Air flows may typically range from about 1 toabout 3 n/sec and should be sufficient to contact as much surface areaof all sides of the food slice as possible without excessive lifting ordisplacement from the transport belt, which may cause tearing, damage orloss of control of the food slice. If required, a hold-down belt can beused above the food slices to control agitation. An AIRFORCE ImpingementOven available from Heat and Control, Inc. of Hayward, Calif., USA canbe used. The objective is to remove as much of the surface moisture aspossible and to try to achieve a surface moisture as close to about 0%as possible to minimize surface tension effects and optimize handlingcharacteristics in later unit operations. This amount of surfacemoisture removal however may not be necessary for all food slicesubstrates or even all potato varieties. As used herein, about 0%surface moisture is defined such that if absorbent paper is applied tothe food slice no water is absorbed by the paper. The removal ofsufficient surface moisture has occurred when the overall moisturecontent of the potato slices has reached or is lower than the nativewater content e.g., the water content after slicing or prior to ablanching step. In one embodiment, the surface drying step 140 reducesthe free water from about 7% to about 10% by weight to less than about2% by weight and preferably to about 0% by weight.

In one embodiment, the potato slices are further dried in a pre-dryingstep 150 which may utilize a microwave oven, infra-red oven, a forcedhot air oven or a combination of these may be treated as a continuationof the surface drying step with the aim of improving the overall cost orenergy efficiencies of the drying process. A hot air conveyor dryer,commercially available from Aeroglide of Raleigh, N.C., USA, or a hotair rotary dryer (often used in the food industry for rice and seeds)can be used to reduce the moisture content by up to half of the native,raw material starting moisture content. The lowest moisture contentexiting the pre-drying step 150 can be set as the point at which all‘unbound’ moisture has been removed from the food slice. In oneembodiment, potato slices leaving the pre-drying step 150 comprise amoisture content of between about 50% by weight and its native moisturecontent (typically about 80% for a potato slice) and more preferablybetween about 65% and about 75% by weight. Hot air drying conditionsshould preferably be maintained at air temperatures of about 110° C. toabout 140° C. for about 60 seconds to about 120 seconds. If the hot airpre-drying step 150 reduces the average moisture content to at least 78%or lower it can improve the mechanical strength of the slice and helpreduce excessive deformations such as folding, balling up or clumping insubsequent explosive dehydration if this is performed using deep bed orrotary drying as the explosive dehydration step 200. The improvement inmechanical strength when applying hot air drying is thought to come fromcreating an ‘exo-skeleton’ by drying surface cells beyond their limp,low turgidity phase to create a rigidised surface cell layer. In thisway the dry surface is able to support the body of the potato slice andmechanically resist the tendency to fold and collapse when tumbling. Airimpingement ovens can be used to generate mechanical strength in theslice and the higher temperature, of for example 220 C to 260 C, atimpingement air velocities reduces the processing time to around 15 to45 seconds. However air impingement is most effective when food slicesare monolayered on a transport belt and this same hot air exposure candegrade the finished chip texture and flavour.

Pre-drying 154 is also preferably used directly after lipophilicpreconditioning 114 or after oil removal 142. A microwave, infra-red orforced hot air oven are suitable processing steps as described above,however in this case pre-drying in a microwave oven 154 is preferred asit minimizes exposure of the oil coating to hot air which can driveoxidation. In addition, pre-drying is most easily performed using alinear, belted oven on which the slices are spread. The penetration ofmicrowave energy means that a microwave pre-dry does not require amonolayer of food slices. It is less dependant on good spread andseparation of slices than a hot air or infra-red pre-dry where theenergy must directly contact all surfaces for efficient heating. Asignificant function of pre-drying is to ensure the slice has sufficientmechanical strength to pass through a deep bed rotary or otherwiseagitated explosive dryer 200 without creating excessive defects to theshape or singulation of the finished chips. Studies by others have shownthat during the early stages of drying of potato or other vegetableslices, loss of turgid pressure in the cell walls leads to a limp slicethat is incapable of supporting itself and is more likely to stick tosurfaces. A slice at this stage of dehydration is very prone tocollapsing into undesirable shape defects, single or multiple folds,clumps and multiple slice clusters when it encounters deformationalmechanical forces during drying. This phenomenon has been a historicalbarrier to the use deep bed drying or agitated drying systems asdisclosed in this invention. Therefore, one benefit of pre-drying is toenable the use of higher capacity, smaller footprint deep bed processingmethods where food slices are continuously agitated or tumbled. Thebenefits of deep bed drying are realized since the pre-drying step 154is for a brief period only and can be inserted between other deep bedequipment without the need to monolayer. The applicants have designed asolution using a linear microwave pre-dryer that transports the sliceson a belt to eliminate the shape defect issue.

Without being bound by theory, if the extent of pre-drying selected isrelatively low, then the slices will enter the subsequent deep-bed unitstill in a flaccid state, and the overall improvement in final productshape may be explained by the simple reduction in the proportion ofoverall drying time the slice undergoes with no physical support of itsform while it is still flaccid before the subsequent hardening due todehydration. Without being bound by theory, if the extent of pre-dryingsets up a moisture gradient in the food slice such that a part of theslice becomes hard or semi-rigid then this skeleton can support theslice during subsequent deep bed drying. The moisture gradient may occurbetween the outer surfaces of the food slice and its internal center,for example when applying infra red or hot air, or the moisture gradientmay occur between the outer circumference of the food slice and itsgeometric center, where the geometric center becomes more dry and rigidthan the outer areas. This latter case is a feature of microwave dryingor microwave pre-drying as disclosed herein, so that the slice structureat the center of the food slice can just be set during the supportedpre-drying stage, while the outer area remains rubbery due to its highermoisture content. Initiating the setting of the chip structure createsan ‘endo-skeleton’ at the center of the food slice that will still allowthe slice to remain elastic and adopt a curl shape during subsequentdrying steps but will prevent undesirable shape defects or clumping dueto the chip completely folding during the rotary, agitated explosivedrying step 200.

A microwave pre-dryer can fulfill this function with significant sliceoverlap and without the need to monolayer since the moisture content isonly partially reduced. Reducing the moisture content of overlappingslices too low will result in sticking and welding of the slices to eachother creating inseparable clusters. Therefore, one benefit ofpre-drying 154 is to remove a large amount of water in a way that theslices do not weld together and will be separated in the subsequentrotary, agitated drying step to produce singulated chips. A microwavepre-dryer can maintain the explosive drying rates disclosed later inthis invention. Therefore this step may range from 5 seconds to 90seconds but is typically 5 seconds to 45 seconds in duration butpreferably 10 seconds to 20 seconds in duration, constituting a portionof the first drying phase and may remove sufficient water to approachthe first carbohydrate transition point in the food slice as describedlater in this application. It is possible the processor will remove 50%or more of the water content of a food slice with a pre-dryer whichcomprises a belt microwave where slices are allowed to touch andoverlap, however lower moistures increase the risk of product stickingand forming clumps and increases the hazards of arc formation andconsequent fires. Preferably therefore, microwave pre-drying may be usedto remove between one quarter and one half of the initial water, forexample reducing the average slice moisture content from around 80% toaround 75% wet basis (from approximately 4:1 to 3:1 dry basis) or around80% to around 65% wet basis (from approximately 4:1 to 2:1 dry basis).

Techniques cited in prior art demonstrate that a linear microwave mightbe used to dry the slice to a palatable degree. However, in order toachieve this a significant technology hurdle must be addressed toachieve perfect singulation of slices traveling through the linearmicrowave in order to avoid spontaneous ignition which has been observedby the Applicants when more than one slice is in close proximity oroverlapping. The prior art does not teach how to overcome theoverlapping problem and related risks, therefore, this prior art islimited to low commercial production rates and is subject to the risk ofincendiary incidences due to the high probability of close contact oroverlapping of more than one food slice due to imperfect slice placementtechnology. If it becomes technically and commercially viable tomonolayer the food slices so that slices are at least around 5 mm apartfrom any other slice, for example if slices are deposited on the belt ina controlled manner, then a linear microwave can be used to achieve thefull explosive drying step 200 with a greatly reduced risk of arcing orfire.

The food slices that have not been previously lipophilicallypreconditioned or flash fried can then be coated with oil in an oilcoating step 160 to a controlled level as required in the final product.Oil is important to the development and finished texture, flavor andmouth feel of the potato crisps. A thin coating of oil, preferablyapplied in droplet form, can help control the number and size ofblisters that are formed when the potato slice is explosively dehydrated200 in the primary dryer.

The amount of oil imparted by the coating step 160 can be controlled toobtain desired nutritional and organoleptical properties. Any oil or fatis suitable for the process disclosed including vegetable oil, animalfats or synthetic oils, for example coconut oil, corn oil, cottonseedoil, palm oil, palm olein, linseed oil, safflower oil, high oleicsafflower oil, palm stearin, soybean oil, sunflower oil, mid or higholeic sunflower oil, rape seed oil, lard, tallow, fish oils, olestra,sucrose polyesters, medium chain fatty acids, diacyl glycerols, or ablend of different oils. The choice of oil can be used to influence thefinal flavor and mouth feel of the finished crisp as well as thenutrition profile.

In one embodiment, the amount of oil added 160 is such that the oilcontent of the finished dried potato slice is less than about 10% byweight and more preferably between about 5% and about 8% by weight. Inan alternative embodiment, oil is added to achieve an oil content ofless than about 25% by finished crisp weight and more preferably about13% to about 18% so that the finished oil content is less than half thatof regular crisps today.

In one embodiment, oil is added 160 to the potato slices by a rotaryoiler comprising spray nozzles mounted on an oil lance placed in arotary drum. The application rate of the oil may be controlled by asimple drum pump and may be measured with a flow meter if desired. Forincreased accuracy, the flow meter can be calibrated to a massweighbelt, vibro weighbelt or similar device on the infeed or outfeed ofthe drum. A rotary drum design similar to those used to season snackfoods can be used. In one embodiment, the potato slices are in a rotaryoiler, 800 mm in diameter, for between about 10 to about 30 secondstumbling at about 10 to about 30 rpm. The rpm should be set to maintainsufficient slice separation for coating however, the exact values willdepend on the drum dimensions selected for the quantity of slices to beoiled. Preferably, the drum is made from a textured metal or coated withan anti-sticking material such as polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) or afluoropolymer to minimize product sticking to the drum walls. In oneembodiment, a perforated or scored pattern can be placed along the druminterior. In one embodiment, the drum interior comprises a longitudinalflight to assist the tumbling action and segregation of the food slices.A longitudinal flight or Archimedes screw can also be used to controldwell time inside the drum. One advantage of a rotary oiler is that theoil can be added to potato slices without the need to monolayer and theunit can physically de-clump any slices that may have grouped together.

In one embodiment, the coating step 160 comprises a monolayer oil sprayor alternatively a bakery oiler comprising a spinning plate or avertical oil curtain can be used for products which are suited to orhave been monolayered. In one embodiment, the coating step 160 comprisesmarinating the potato slices in oil at ambient temperatures or blanchingor flash frying in oil at higher temperatures as described above. In oneembodiment, the pre-drying step 150 and oil coating step 160 occurs inthe same rotary device. In one embodiment, oil addition 160 occursduring the explosive dehydration step 200.

The addition of oil 160 to the food slice produces several advantages.For example, oil can be used to control the formation of blisters sothat many small blisters form where otherwise large bubble blisters mayoccur. This is particularly true at lower drying rates (longer dryingtimes) when steam is generated less rapidly. At higher drying rates, theexplosive dehydration has a similar result by a different mechanismsince rapidly escaping steam to relieve internal pressure creates aporous structure. Further, oil is heated in the microwave particularlywhen moisture contents are low as in phase 3 of the drying curvedescribed later. The heating initiates a chemical-food reaction in theoil that develops fried flavor notes. A similar effect can be achievedif the oil is “conditioned” by heating off line, either usingconventional heating methods, microwave energy or otherwise and thenapplied via a spray onto the product. In fact, the oil can be“conditioned” by using the oil first in other applications, such as aheating medium for another food line. Instead of disposing the oil atthe end of its useful application as a heating medium, it can be reusedas an oil additive in Applicants' invention. When Applicants refer to“conditioned” oil, this includes oil that has been worked previously byany means, including, but not limited to, heat, oxidation, andhydrolysis other thermal conditioning methods or lipophilicpre-conditioning. If oil is applied to the product prior to microwaving,the oil confers the additional advantage of acting as an energy or heatsink towards the end of the drying cycle when the moisture content islow. This is evidenced by experiments conducted by the inventors thatreveal higher exit temperatures for a given time or moisture content ofproducts which have been oiled prior to microwave drying versesnon-oiled products. Consequently, adding oil prior to the explosivedehydration step 200 reduces the incidence of scorching in the microwaveand drying is therefore assisted to lower final moisture contentswithout generating undesirable browning or burnt flavour notes in thepotato crisp or snack.

The potato slices are then routed to a microwave for the explosivedehydration 200 step. To improve process control and enable moreaccurate drying at high rates, food slices may be routed via a mass feedweighbelt. A similar advantage is obtained for food slices originatingfrom doughs by forming and depositing in pieces of controlled volume ormass. As used herein the terms, “explosive drying,” “explosivedehydration,” “rapidly dehydrated” “primary drying” are synonymous andare defined as simulating a dehydration profile corresponding to a friedfood product that occurs in a non-oil medium. The non-oil heating mediumcan include but is not limited to, microwave radiation, infraredradiation, radio frequency radiation, superheated steam, air andcombinations thereof. The primary energy source applied for evaporationof water by non-oil heating may be supplemented with additional heatsources or energy sources such as hot air, steam, superheated steam,microwave, infrared or radio frequency radiation. Commercial productionof potato crisps typically involves a continuous process wherein slicedpotatoes are continuously introduced into a vat of frying oil at atemperature of about 365° F. (about 185° C.), conveyed through the oilby paddles or other means, and removed from the oil after about two andone-half to three minutes of frying by an endless conveyor belt when themoisture content of the crisps has been reduced to about 2% or less byweight of fried chip (equivalent to around 3.0% or less of finished chippotato weight). The resulting product generally has texture and flavorcharacteristics, which are usually recognizable by consumers as typicalcommercially produced continuous process potato crisps.

FIG. 6 depicts a prior art dehydration profile of continuously friedpotato crisps 610, and is taken from FIG. 4 of U.S. Pat. No. 5,643,626,assigned to the same assignee as the present invention. As shown, apotato slice having a moisture content of greater than about 80% isdehydrated to a moisture content of about 20% about one minute and to amoisture content of less than about 3% in about 2 minutes. Also shown byFIG. 6 is the dehydration profile of a batch kettle fried hard bitepotato crisp having a slower dehydration profile 620 but still cooked inhot oil. Either of these dehydration profiles 610, 620 can be simulatedin a non-oil medium in accordance with embodiments of the presentinvention. By simulating these drying profiles, the present inventioncan also simulate the different finished crisp textures associated withthese two dehydration profiles 610, 620 or any profile in the spectrumof either atmospheric or vacuum frying. Not to be limited by theory, theinventors believe that by simulating the dehydration profile, theinvention also effectively simulates the starch conversion that occursand is largely responsible for the finished crisp texture. In thiscontext ‘starch conversion’ refers to the temperature and moisturecontent of the majority of carbohydrates in the food slice as themajority of carbohydrates pass through each transition and the time themajority of carbohydrates spend in each transition phase (molten/liquid,rubbery/elastic or glass/crystalline). Carbohydrate melting andtransition points have been determined and published elsewhere usingsimple capillary studies or techniques like Diffraction ScanningCalorimetry (DSC) to measure enthalpy changes.

The present invention can be used to mimic the dehydration profile ofany fried food. Consequently, in one embodiment, the present inventionprovides a method for microwave cooking a food product to mimic theorganoleptic characteristics of a fry-cooked product. An example of howthe present invention can be utilized to provide a non-fried potatocrisp having a dehydration profile that mimics the dehydration profileof a continuously fried potato crisp is provided below.

First, a dehydration profile corresponding to a fried food product isidentified. For example, as previously indicated, FIG. 6 depicts thedehydration profile of continuously fried potato crisps 610 and thedehydration profile of batch kettle fried hard bite potato crisps 620.In one embodiment, the dehydration profile of a fried food can bedetermined by using a continuous flume fryer and removing samples atvarious distances related to certain times or a batch catering fryerwhere samples are ‘fished’ out of the oil at certain times and moisturecontent then determined. Next the food product is prepared for microwavecooking. For example, a potato can be prepared by blanching, thermalconditioning or lipophilic preconditioning and optional pre-drying. Thepotato slices can then be cooked at a controlled power corresponding tothe power required to reproduce, mimic, or create a substantiallysimilar desired dehydration profile 610, 620 as depicted in FIG. 6. Thiscan be accomplished through trial and error by, for example,experimenting with a belted microwave under constant power settings, onecan remove the microwaved food products at certain times and positionsto determine the related moisture contents. The power level can beadjusted as required for the specific microwave system and food slicecombination in use. Consequently, in accordance with one embodiment ofthe present invention, the controlled power corresponding to the powerrequired to reproduce a dehydration profile of a fried food productcomprises a first microwave power and a second microwave power. In oneembodiment, the controlled power corresponds to transition points in thedehydration rate of the food slice which are believed to relate tostarch transitions. The above example is provided for purposes ofillustration and not limitation. The same method described above can beused to mimic the dehydration profile of other fried food productsincluding, but not limited to tortilla crisps, corn crisps, French friesand hash browns. Other products may have different carbohydratecompositions and different initial moisture contents and may optionallyhave been pre-dried (e.g. in a toasting oven), therefore, microwavedrying profile should be adapted to suit, as described above.

In one embodiment, the explosive dehydration step 200 comprisessimulating a dehydration profile to a moisture content of between about2% and about 15% and preferably between about 4% and about 8% by weightin an amount of time that is similar to the time required for thecomparison fried food product. The dehydration rates and starchconversion rates in the first two phases of the dehydration profileshould be similar to and preferably match those of the comparison friedfood product to achieve similar texture. For example, in onepotato-based embodiment, the present invention comprises dehydrating themoisture content in a plurality of potato slices from greater than about60% moisture by weight to less than about 20% moisture by weight in anon-oil medium in less than about 60 seconds. In one embodiment, theexplosive dehydration step 200 further comprises reducing the moisturecontent in the slices from a first moisture content of between about 65%to about 80% by weight to less than about 15% by weight in a non-oilmedium in less than about 120 seconds. In one embodiment, the explosivedehydration step further comprises reducing the moisture content to lessthan about 10% by weight or preferably less than about 2% by weight inthe explosive dehydration step in less than about 180 seconds.

FIG. 2 is a graphical representation of the moisture content as depictedby the moisture dehydration curve 220 and temperature profile 270 of apotato slice undergoing an explosive dehydration step in a microwave inaccordance with one embodiment of the present invention. As shown, priorto explosive dehydration, the potato slice comprises its native, rawstate moisture content of just over about 80% moisture by total weight201. Of course, in accordance with other embodiments of the presentinvention a blanched and/or par-dried potato slice can comprise a lowermoisture content, as described above. Different potato varieties orother food materials (for example carrots, parsnips, broccoli orcauliflower) will have different raw moisture contents that may bedifferent than described here. At this point, 201, the potato slice iswet, slippery, rubbery, and flexible. As the potato slice becomes moredehydrated, it becomes drier, less slippery, but remains rubbery andflexible 202. At point 202 the slice is limp and has little ability toresist folding due to a loss in turgid pressure. Onsets of blisteringbegin to appear throughout the slice, but the biggest concentration ofthe blistering occurs mainly at the edges as small, flat, irregularshapes. The onset of the blister formations can peel off implyingpotential steam explosions from within the slice. No puffing is observedat this point 202. In this approximate same time frame, the potato slicetemperature reaches the boiling point temperature 272 and there is arelatively high rate of water vaporization 222. At the point depicted bynumeral 203, the potato slice is drier than in 202 and there is anappearance of larger onsets of blistering throughout the slice. Somerigidity has been restored to the slice at the center however, thepotato slice is still flexible and other areas feel rubbery. The potatoslice is not slippery at this point 203. The temperature of the potatoslice remains flat 274 for a while after the potato slice approximatelyreaches the boiling point temperature of water at atmospheric pressure.There is also a slowing of the dehydration rate depicted by the slightflattening 224 of the moisture dehydration curve 220. Without beinglimited to theory, the inventors believe that the apparent flattening224 of the dehydration curve coincides with the starch melting point 250as determined in scientific literature using DSC methods, where many ofthe starch solids begin to melt. In the potato slice embodiment, thestarch melting point 250 occurs when the slice has been dehydrated toabout 50% moisture by weight and when the slice temperature is at about100° C. For ease of interpretation, the period before this transitionpoint has been classed as phase 1.

At point 204, the drier potato slice continues to have the appearance ofmore blisters throughout the slice periphery. The slice at this point204 is still rubbery and flexible. At point 205, the potato slice is inthe second drying phase (or phase 2), which occurs between the twotransition points 250, 260 identified and where the starch is thought tobe primarily rubber 226. The slice at point 205 is drier than the sliceat 204 and there is the onset of a rough surface appearance and somedegree of floppiness indicating the entire slice is not yet fully set.At point 206 the slice is hardened and appears set. Some brittleness hasdeveloped with a certain degree of give. The surface appearance is roughthroughout.

At point 207, there is a flattening of the curve depicted by numeral228. Again, without being limited to theory, the inventors believe suchflattening 228 occurs as the starch enters the glass transition stage260 and the starch solids begin to enter into a glassy state, labeled asphase 3. At point 208 the potato slice is drier and more brittle than atnumeral 207 and the surface resembles a flat disk. At point 209, thepotato slice is drier and more brittle. At point 210 the slice is drierand more brittle than at 209, and some puffed blisters are observed. Atnumerals 212, 213, 214, and 215 the potato slice is similar inappearance as in numeral 211. As the potato slice moisture content islow and the remaining moisture is less available for microwave energy tocouple with in the final glassy state 230, the temperature of the foodslice rises 280, which beneficially increases intensity of cooked potatoflavor or imparts fried flavor notes into the food slice in the phase 3drying stage if the slices are pre-oiled. For pre-oiled slices duringphase 3 of the drying cycle, at low moisture contents, the microwaveenergy is thought to preferentially couple with the oil. This has beenobserved to generate beneficial fried flavor notes. Further, oil acts asa heat sink that helps prevent scorching and assists with moisturecontrol at the end of the drying process. Consequently, pre-oiled slicesmake the process more controllable and products develop flavor morecharacteristic of fried chips. Steam can also be used at the end of thedrying cycle to help control drying to an equal rate between slices andavoid product scorching.

FIG. 3 is an alternative graphical representation of the moisturecontent of the same potato slices depicted in FIG. 2. Instead of themoisture content being measured on a total weight basis, e.g. the waterweight divided by the sum of the water weight and the dry solids, themoisture content is depicted as a ratio of the moisture remaining in thepotato slice to the dry solids in the potato slice. The actual dryingrates defined by grams of water removed per second as a ratio of thesolids as depicted in FIG. 3 is a direct, primary and therefore moreuseful measure of the process conditions required to achieve targettextures as opposed to a measure corresponding to the microwave powerabsorbed because the power absorbed by the product is specific to thecavity and product combination. The depiction as in FIG. 3 has beenfound to be a useful assessment tool to determine and better delineatethe three different drying phases that appear to be marked by the starchtransition points. Indeed, experiments have demonstrated that the dryingrates and transition points can be defined accurately and are highlyreproducible—especially when a homogenized food sample and/or controlledpiece weight is used for determinations. Since these drying rates havebeen associated with different product textures, it is possible toprecisely define the carbohydrate transition points and the relationshipbetween dehydration profile and finished product attributes. It shouldbe pointed out that the numerals 201-215 in FIG. 2 depict the same data,in different units, as the corresponding numerals 301-315 in FIG. 3.

As shown in FIG. 3, the drying curve has been divided into threedistinct drying rates or phases. The first phase or first dehydrationrate 322 starts when the food slice temperature reaches the boilingpoint and the moisture level begins to decrease. The slope of the line322 depicts the first phase dehydration rate, which is 0.2 gramsmoisture per gram of solid per second in the embodiment shown. Once thepotato slice reaches its starch melting point range 350, the dehydrationrate slows. Consequently, the second dehydration rate phase 326 shown inFIG. 3 is 0.03 grams of moisture per gram of solid per second. Thesecond phase dehydration rate is constant until the potato slice starchreaches the glass transition stage 360 and passes into phase 3. In thephase 3 dehydration stage 330, the temperature of the food sliceincreases to impart desired flavor notes. The exact temperature increaseand profile will depend on the level of pre-applied oil as well as otherdrying energy factors.

A rise in the product temperature represents a change in absorption ofthe microwave energy away from water during the latter drying stage.Product drying can be stopped just prior to temperatures rising rapidlytoward the end of the drying cycle when microwave energy heats organicmatter of the substrate directly rather than water. The exacttemperature profile will be in part dependent on product formulation andcan be determined by trial and error and then set as a process controlparameter. Consequently, in one embodiment, the potato slice is removedfrom the heating stage 330 when the potato slice reaches a certaintemperature. By removing the product before a significant temperaturerise occurs, the development of acrylamide can be minimized. In oneembodiment, the food slices are removed from the microwave at some timeafter the slices reach a temperature of about 110° C. and preferablybefore reaching about 140° C. and optimally before reaching about 120°C. to minimize acrylamide formation. In one embodiment, the heatingstage 330 occurs under vacuum to further minimize acrylamide formation.In one embodiment, the explosive dehydration step 200 occurs in a vacuummicrowave. Such an embodiment advantageously reduces the temperature ofthe food slices during dehydration resulting in lowered levels ofacrylamide. Those skilled in the art will recognize that by operatingunder vacuum, the temperature and moisture parameters of the starchconversion are modified and this can be used to further manipulatefinished product texture. Therefore, in one embodiment, all or a portionof the microwave dehydration occurs under a vacuum where the vacuumlevel is selected according the finished product texture desired. In oneembodiment, the microwave comprises a micro vacuum of between about 20to about 80 torr where the boiling point of water is less than about 46°C. or a high vacuum of between about 150 to about 250 torr wheremoisture boiling point is between about 60° C. and about 70° C. In oneembodiment, the vacuum may be released or partially released towards theend of the drying cycle to encourage flavor development in the crisp.Alternatively, a low vacuum of about 500 to about 700 torr wheremoisture boiling point is between about 90° C. and about 98° C. may beapplied to slightly lower product temperatures while minimizing the riskof ionizing a rarefied atmosphere containing microwave energy. In oneembodiment the vacuum level is increased towards the end of the dryingcycle to avoid exposing heat sensitive food materials to excessivetemperature when moisture contents are low and therefore to minimizeacrylamide formation. Of course the requisite vacuum level can depend onone or more factors including the food substrate material, desireddegree of puffing, microwave power, food substrate shape, etc.Consequently, the vacuum can range from 0 to about 760 torr.

It should be noted that the specific dehydration rates depicted forthree dehydration phases shown in FIG. 3 merely depict one embodiment ofthe present invention. The actual drying slopes can be controlled tosimulate frying based upon the power provided by a microwave, the designof the applicator and the composition of the food slice.

Table 1 below depicts the dehydration rates for the three phases for asingle cavity (applicator), continuous belt, multimode microwave run attwo different power levels. Such information is provided for purposes ofillustration and not limitation. The claims scope of the presentinvention applies to any microwave system where energy is absorbed by afood slice in the microwave field and is not limited by design specificssuch as number, location, design or orientation of waveguide inputs;microwave frequency; number of modes; shape of cavity (applicator) etc.

The microwave heating chamber used to generate the information depictedin Table 1 contained on average 39 potato slices (Saturna), dry massequivalent of about 35 grams, at any instant. At the microwavegenerator's dial power setting (Pf) of 6 (“Medium” power in thisexample), to achieve drying rates of about 0.2, 0.03 and 0.004 gramsmoisture per gram dry mass per second over the drying times shown inFIG. 3 required absorbed microwave powers of about 2.6, about 0.8, andabout 0.2 kW respectively (3.5 kW in total). Therefore, the absorbedpower distribution for Phase 1, Phase 2 and Phase 3, is about 73%, about23% and about 4% of the total absorbed power respectively. Similarly ata power setting of 3 (“Low” power in this example) the drying rates ofabout 0.065, about 0.01 and about 0.001 shown in FIG. 4 (discussedbelow) required absorbed microwave powers of about 1.3, about 0.2, andabout 0.04 kW (about 84%, about 13% and about 4%) respectively (1.5 kWin total). These numbers provide a guide, to one skilled in the art, tothe power distribution required in the microwave drying process(explosive drying) in this worked example. However, these values arespecific to the pilot process (microwave cavity and power source) in useand should be set to ensure the absorbed power delivers the desireddrying rate quoted in grams moisture per gram dry mass per see for whichever cavity is in use.

Since the actual energy absorbed is a function of cavity design andproduct, the efficiency of a specific microwave system must be known toset the relevant forward power. In this case, assuming a couplingefficiency of about 70%, the “Medium” power setting of 6 corresponds topower available in the cavity of 5 kW, and the “Low” power setting of 3corresponds to power available in the cavity of 2 kW. In both cases,reflected power was around 1 kW, corresponding to the actual forwardpower setting used in the experiments of 6 kW and 3 kW for the powersettings of 6 and 3 respectively.

TABLE 1 Drying rates (grams moisture to grams dry mass per second)Potato Slice Dehydration Rate Examples to Match Continuous Frying ofRegular PC Power Setting = 6 Power Setting = 3 (FIG. 3) (FIG. 4) Phase 10.2 0.065 Phase 2 0.03 0.01 Phase 3 0.004 0.001

While not being limited by theory, the inventors recognize that phase 1and phase 2 appear to be responsible for mimicking the texture generatedby frying using the disclosed non-oil drying method. Phase 1 correspondsto the evaporation of a large amount of water. In phase 1, drying ratesare highest and the inventors have observed these drying rates are oftensimilar between “different” food slices (e.g. raw slices and doughslices of similar starting moistures) for a given set of microwaveconditions. This is most likely due to the ‘free’ nature of the moisturebeing removed in this phase. Phase 2 relates to a significant starchtransition during which time the native starch is thought to be in amolten state since this is known to occur at about 50% moisture (1 gwater per g of starch solids dry basis) at 100 C. Starch melting istraditionally slow in kettle fryers and quick in continuous fryers sothat the resultant texture varies from crunchy to crisp. Without beinglimited by theory, it is possible that in phase 2, the drying rate maybe dependant on the nature of the food slice as well as the dryingenergy applied since diffusion-limiting factors may be expected to bemore influential on water transport than in phase 1. In phase 3, thestarch, and therefore texture has set, so phase 3 primarily influencesthe finished crisp flavor and color and also facilitates equilibrationof the moisture distribution within and between food slices.

With the knowledge that drying profiles can be divided into threedistinct phases and an understanding that these phases influence thefinished product in different ways, a drying profile can be determinedthat manipulates the product texture and flavor in a similar way tochanging the profile of a fryer today from continuous to kettle. Forexample, to achieve a kettle like texture, energy input is reduced inphase 2 to simulate the longer carbohydrate transition period associatedwith the slower starch melting that occurs in kettle crisp fryers.Effectively, a microwave can be tuned to deliver the same effects as afryer—using energy transfer to replicate conductive heat transferwithout the use of oil.

In one embodiment, the continuous microwave cavity is divided intomultiple continuous cavities through a series of chokes or baffles. Byselecting appropriate positions for each choke device, the microwaveenergy input can be independently controlled at each point along thedrying curve. This enables the user to specify and control to differentdrying rates during each phase, or if desired within a phase. Therefore,the drying rate of phase 2 could be reduced as above for ‘kettle’texture or could, for example, be increased to match that of phase 1 inorder to reduce the overall drying time while the drying rate in phase 3may, for example, be decreased in order to confer a broader controlwindow over the food slice moisture and temperature exit conditions. Ina preferred embodiment the phase 1 and phase 2 drying rates arecontrolled independently from phase 3 by using microwave cavities thatare fully separated by means of a microwave choke. Although similar inresidence time, when simulating a fryer, the power requirements of thesetwo cavities are differ by the order 20:1 for R1/R2:R3. Instrumentationto monitor temperature, moisture content and other parameters may beused at the exit of the R1/R2 cavity and, optionally, the R3 cavity aspart of a product quality control and process safety strategy. Thissituation may be further enabled by use of a product transfer conveyorbetween microwave cavities or microwave and other unit operations.Although drying can be achieved in a single open microwave cavity,separating the microwave drying stages conveys an advantage to theprocessors control over final chip flavour, particularly when makingcontrolled oil potato chips. Moisture content can be reduced in acontrolled manner to 3% to 7%, in the R3 cavity, which significantlyreduces the time required in the finish dry stage 300. Since the finishdry typically comprises hot air, this reduces the exposure of the chipto oxidative reactions and may cut the finish dry time from as much as40 minutes to as little as 5 minutes.

An alternative embodiment uses batch microwave drying in place ofcontinuous microwave drying. Those skilled in the art will be familiarwith domestic microwaves that operate on a batch basis with either acontinuous or pulsed power input. By way of reference, a typicaldomestic oven has been measured to have a phase 1 drying rate 10 timesslower than the example given for the medium power setting of 6 in table1 above and a total drying time, approximately 4 times as long. Asoutlined above, this method will deliver a harder product texture andwill create more challenging control conditions to remove the product atan equilibrated, consistent moisture content at the end of the dryingcycle since the power input remains constant even when moisture is lowtowards the end of the drying cycle.

Therefore, in one embodiment, a batch microwave is used with the powerinput adjusted over the time of the drying cycle to simulate the energyprofile of a continuous drying system. By way of example but notlimitation, for the Pf=6 example given in table 1 above, the power input(which is determined by product load and cavity design) would be reducedat a time that coincides with the start of each phase so that phase 1received about 73%, phase 2 received about 23% and phase 3 receivedabout 4% of total energy required for drying. The power profile can betailored to deliver the desired product and most economic dryingconditions for the food slice taking into account that hot air additionand vapor extraction may also be used to assist the drying process. Inone embodiment, the principle of controlling power input over time forbatch drying is applied when operating the microwave chamber undervacuum as described above.

FIG. 4 is another graphical representation of the dehydration rate of aplurality of potato slices in accordance with one embodiment of thepresent invention. The microwave power energy input per kg that producedthe data for FIG. 4 was lower than the power used to produce the data inFIG. 3. As shown in FIG. 4, there are three distinct drying phases thathave a high linear correlation. The first phase dehydration rate 422 isabout 0.065 grams moisture per gram of solid per second. The secondphase dehydration rate 426 is about 0.01 grams moisture per gram ofsolid per second. The phase 1 and phase 2 drying rates appear to beproportionally related when presented for continuous drying in a uniformmicrowave field. The third phase 430 comprises a dehydration rate ofabout 0.001 grams water per gram of solid per second.

FIG. 5 is an approximate, comparative graphical representation of thedata depicted in FIG. 3 and FIG. 4. The lower line 322 a, 326 a, and 330a and upper line 422 a, 426 a define the drying rate window in which thetarget texture was reproduced for the potato crisp product beingstudied. Because the lines depicting the dehydration rates in FIG. 3 andFIG. 4 have been curve fit, the upper and lower lines are approximate.As a result, the numerals have the letter “a” associated to indicate theslight variation.

As shown, the first dehydration rate 322 a, second dehydration rate 326a and third dehydration rate 330 a from a microwave oven operating at apower rate required to achieve the depicted dehydration rates 322 a, 326a form a lower boundary. Similarly, the first dehydration rate 422 a,and second dehydration rate 426 a from a microwave oven operating at apower rate to achieve the depicted dehydration rates 422 a, 426 adetermine an upper boundary. It is the shaded area between these twoboundaries that corresponds to a region that mimics the dehydrationprofile 510 of a continuous deep-fried thinly sliced, flat cut potatocrisp. Consequently, in accordance with one embodiment of the presentinvention, a food slice dehydration profile that delivers texture andorganoleptic properties similar to its fried counterpart but occurringin a non-oil medium, lies in the shaded region. In summary, the study ofmicrowave drying of food slices has revealed three different dryingphases that appear to be marked by the starch transition point, themelting point and the glass point. In phase 1 the drying rates arehighest prior to the starch melting and ‘unbound’ water is substantiallyremoved. The faster this moisture is removed the more porous the slicesurface is expected to be and the fewer the final number of blisters. Inphase 2 the drying rates are intermediate post-starch melting and therate at which the food slice transitions through this phase influenceshow the texture is set in the final snack. In phase 3 the drying ratesare lowest post starch glass transition. In phase 3, the flavor andcolor is developed and moisture is equilibrated. Cooked potato and friedflavor notes are imparted, particularly when oil is present on the foodslice and the oil and food slice are heated through microwave powercoupling preferentially with the oil at lower moisture contents and someadded steam heating present during this final moisture evaporationstage. This results in a relatively higher exit temperature but morecontrollable product and process conditions at the end of the microwavedrying step.

One important benefit of the present invention is that the rate ofmicrowave drying can influence the product texture. Consequently, withknowledge of the carbohydrate transition points, which is easilydetermined using a belt-driven microwave cavity, a dehydration profilecan be determined that manipulates the product texture as desired.Acceptable snack products can be made from food slices comprising freshraw materials in primary or explosive drying times from about 30 secondsto over 12 minutes. Longer drying times (specifically a longer time inphase 1 and 2) create slightly harder and glassier textures similar tobatch kettle fried hard bite potato crisps. For example, to achieve akettle-like texture, energy input can be reduced in phase 2 to simulatethe slower starch melting phase that occurs in the kettle crisp fryerstoday. Faster drying times (specifically a shorter time in phase 1 and2) create more light and crisp textures similar to the fried snack foodsmade in continuous fryers of today. Effectively, a microwave can betuned to deliver the same effects as a fryer and can thereby replicateheat transfer without the use of oil.

A further series of experiments were performed to quantify the preferreddrying rates for each of the three phases when using a freshly preparedpotato based food slices to make snackable foods. Potato slices in a rawslice form and were prepared using one of the blanching methodsdisclosed to give a native moisture content around 75% to 82% and a wetpiece thickness of 1.4 mm. The summary of preferred rates is given intable 2 below.

TABLE 2 Drying rates by phase for potato based food slices: rates givenare gram of moisture removed per second per gram of dry matter (drybasis);

Minimum Rate Preferred Range for texture Maximum Rate Phase 1 0.02 0.06-0.18 0.20 Phase 2 0.004 0.01-0.06 0.08

Minimum Rate Preferred Range for flavor Maximum Rate Phase 3 0.00050.002-0.02 0.03

In one embodiment, potato slices ranging from 1.0 mm up to 3.0 mm thick,but preferably 1.3 to 2.0 mm are processed using one of the combinationsof drying rates disclosed above. In one embodiment potato based foodslices in composite pellet form ranging from 1.0 mm up to 3.0 mm thick,but preferably 1.3 to 2.5 mm are processed using one of the combinationsof drying rates disclosed above. As already described, each phase can bevaried independently, in a continuous or batch process, between themaximum and minimum limits in table 2 to generate the desired flavor,texture and appearance product attributes in the finished food or tooptimize the processing or engineering solution for the manufacturingequipment used. Therefore, in one embodiment, any combination of theabove drying rates for each phase may be used to process a food slice.

A method has been devised using a microwave oven to simulate the non-oilcooking medium and accurately determine the drying rates for each phasein order to simulate a fried food product. This method is novel in itsuse of a microwave cavity to generate data that enables starch andcarbohydrate transitions to be identified and for that information to bedirectly relevant and applicable to design a process that tailors theproduct attributes of a snack food to simulate its fried counterpart.While starch transitions are known to occur in normal frying processes,historically experimental noise associated with the methods fordetermining drying profiles have masked the ability to determine starchtransitions with any accuracy. One advantage of Applicants' method isthat it does not rely on specialized or complicated analytical equipment(e.g. Diffraction Scanning Calorimetry) to determine the carbohydratetransition points but uses pilot or production scale processes typicalof those found in applied manufacturing development facilities. Afurther advantage is that the method is capable of sufficient precisionand accuracy to optimize product attributes and define the relevantprocess conditions and to use this information to design a large-scaleproduction line that accurately reproduces a laboratory or pilot productat commercial scale. Since drying rates will be influenced by the degreeof uniformity of the food product, its size, shape, recipe andcomposition, it is preferable to generate initial drying curves on ahomogeneous base of the simplest geometry comprised of the primarycarbohydrate with, optionally, a controlled amount of oil. Subsequentoptimization of the process conditions can be carried out according tothe final compositional and dimensional attributes of the product to beprocessed.

A single chamber, continuous conveyor microwave oven equipped with aside-opening panel that allows full belt access between inlet and outletchokes is the preferred pilot experimental equipment. A unit wasdesigned and constructed by C-TECH, Capenhurst, UK for this purpose. Theequipment should be temperature equilibrated at a pre-determined, fixedpower before use. Food slices are prepared and presented to themicrowave oven in a uniform configuration of rows and columns. Forimproved accuracy food slices should be selected to be of similar size,shape, weight, moisture content and moisture distribution. For maximumpiece-to-piece uniformity the food slices may be homogenized (forexample, by ricing, grinding or milling) and then reformed intoconsistent pellets, optionally incorporating a mixture of ingredients tomake a composite product if desired. Operating at fixed power theresidence time of the food slices inside the heating cavity of themicrowave can be adjusted to achieve the selected exit targets e.g.moisture content, color, hardness or texture. When the process achievessteady state continuous running, the conveyor belt and microwave powerare simultaneously stopped at the point where a full food slice has justfully entered the heating chamber. The cavity is opened and samples areremoved at each point along the belt for laboratory moisture analysis.Each point along the belt is assigned a time value based on theoperating conditions used for the test. Typically, six replicates ofthis experiment per food product per process conditions producessufficiently precise experimental results. Optionally, during thisexperiment the temperature profile may also be measured.

A knowledge of the temperature and moisture content of starch or acarbohydrate can assist in predicting transition points with referenceto scientific literature or can be used to influence and control thechemical reactions that occur in the food product during processing.When the method disclosed is used to study chemical reactions in foodproducts additional functionality such as hot air for ambienttemperature control or an instant reaction quenching method (forexample, cold carbon dioxide gas) may be added to the appropriate stageof the microwave oven chamber.

The percentage moisture loss determined over time by laboratory analysisis converted to a dry basis rate of moisture loss. Dry basis moistureloss makes any transitions in drying rates more obvious. The product orprocess developer can then apply linear regressions to obtain thebest-fit lines and therefore drying rates per phase. The productdeveloper can expect to achieve linear correlations with r²>0.8 andtypically r²>0.9 with the potential for phase 1 and 2 to approach r²=1.0for precisely orchestrated experiments. For a potato based food slicedried to less than 10% moisture two transitions and three drying phasesmay be determined. By way of example only, potato starch transitionpoints may nominally be expected at the end of phase 1 at dry basismoisture content around 0.8 to 1.2 but typically around 1.0 (50% water)for native potato slices and end of phase 2 at dry basis moisturecontents between 0.10 and 0.50 but typically around 0.25 (20% water) fornative potato slices. For this method, the drying process may beconsidered complete at dry basis moisture of 0.05 (around 5% watercontent) In this case, the moisture content refers to the averagemoisture content for the food slice noting that due to the nature ofdrying processes the food slice may contain a moisture gradient.

Through iterative study or process, manipulation of these drying phaseswill enable the sensory properties of a fried and other food products tobe closely simulated in order to obtain a desired end product. Sensoryproperties can be evaluated using well known consensus or blind paneltechniques. Where basic cooking parameters (moisture, time) are known,this information can be used to reduce the number of iterations.Alternatively, if a full dehydration curve of sufficient accuracy isknown or can be determined for the food product and process underinvestigation, this can be quantified and accurately simulated bydetermining the microwave power required to match the water removalrates of the cooking system used, thus reducing iterations.

A belted or rotary microwave can be used for the explosive dehydrationstep 200. A belted microwave known from frozen meat and fishapplications and available commercially from Ferrite, Inc. of Nashua,N.H., USA can be used. Belted microwaves either as single or multiplecavities are most suited to food slices that are molded, sheeted,extruded, stamped or otherwise deposited in an orderly manner onto amoving belt. Belted cavities have been presented in the prior art tomanufacture potato chips (U.S. Pat. No. 5,292,540 or U.S. Pat. No.5,298,707) but are not generally suited to natural food slices that arepresented in a random manner, both in orientation and piece size, ashappens for example with sliced potato or other tubers. In these cases,small piece sizes must be selected out from the incoming or outgoingproduct stream due to improper drying and specialized horizontal slicingthat deposits slices as individual pieces mono layered onto a movingbelt must be used. The disadvantage of this system is the relatively lowbelt loading that is achieved which drives large line footprints andpoor processing efficiencies. A further disadvantage is the lowthroughputs that result from avoiding large line footprints and due tothe poor capability of such slicing systems to maintain completeseparation of each slice. Without complete slice separation, a starchbased food slice is prone to ignition inside the belt microwave cavitycaused by a concentration of microwave energy and sustained arcs in thearea of close slice proximity or overlap between slices. Food sliceignition will seriously taint the product being manufactured, damagetransport components and presents a dangerous fire hazard for theprocessor.

Rotary microwaves are most suited to food slices presented in a randommanner to the explosive drying step 200 or where product sticking is nota concern. The applicants disclose a rotary microwave that can receiverandomly presented natural food slices, for example potato slices froman Urschell CC slicer of the type most commonly used on potato chiplines today, without the need to deposit in a singular manner on a belt,to control or select piece size or shape, manage adjacency or toseparate food slices into a single layer. Rotary microwaves areavailable in other industries such as the ceramics industry, asillustrated by U.S. Pat. No. 6,104,015 and for “microwave absorbentmaterials” as illustrated by U.S. Pat. No. 5,902,510 and can beconstructed for use under vacuum as illustrated by U.S. Pat. No.6,092,301 for tanning. Rotary microwaves are not promoted for use infood products but can be used in this instance.

One advantage of using a rotary microwave is that food slices can foldas the slices dehydrate and transition from the rubbery state into theglassy state. As a result, the dehydrated slices have random foldsthereby mimicking the appearance of traditionally fried snacks. Controlover the formation of shape generated by tumbling action during deep bedrotary drying of the food slices can be enhanced by the use of thepre-drying methods disclosed earlier in this application. An importantfeature of rotary microwave drying is that it avoids the need topartially separate or singulate the food slices prior to explosivedrying which is a complicated operation and normally required to ensurethat randomly presented food slices do not stick together during dryingon a belt. Therefore, a further advantage to a rotary microwave oven isthat the food slices can be explosively dehydrated in a relatively densedeep bed configuration whilst being continuously agitated. The tumblingaction maintains individual slice separation and avoids slices stickingtogether without requiring a large, uneconomic footprint that would beneeded to keep the slices separated in a monolayered or partiallymono-layered belt drying operation of typical industrial capacities. Afurther advantage of rotary drying is to induce a more familiar curledshape to the finished chip, similar to that found in conventionallypotato and corn chips.

In one embodiment, a rotary microwave that is suitable for snack foodapplications is constructed in either batch or continuous form. In itssimplest form, a rotating drum that will transport the food slicesduring drying is enclosed in an external cavity. The external cavity canbe built to any geometry including, but not limited to square,triangular, pentagonal, hexagonal or parallelogram. A circular cavityconfers the opportunity to minimize the volume of the system byaccommodating a concentric product transport drum or acting as therotating product transport drum itself. Food slices are fed into thecavity through a microwave choke equipped with a transport belt orvibrating conveyor and can be removed by similar means or by free fallthrough a suitable choke. Preferably the product is removed by gravityfeed to a rotary vane discharge which allows product to be removedthrough a larger surface area, and thereby reduce the risk of slices notdischarging effectively, than with a simple discharge pipe or chute whensome of the vanes are designed to continuously choke microwave energywhilst discharging product between other vanes.

The rotating drum preferably contains longitudinal flights or otherlifting structures to ensure the food slices are lifted and tumbledduring transport. The number, profile, size, etc. of theses theseflights has a major influence on the final product attributes especiallyproduct appearance attributes such as curl. The ratio of airborne time(or free-fall time) to drum contact time (when the food slice is beinglifted by a flight) is a significant variable which has been found bythe Applicants to influence food slice final appearance. To control foodslice residence time distribution, the drum may also contain a spiral,helix or similar device along the entire length of the drum or part ofthe drum, for example the last half of the drum.

In alternative embodiments, other novel microwave designs may beutilized including, but not limited to, cavities that transport sliceson helical conveyors, multi-pass conveyors, vertical trays, or acceptfree falling slices under gravity with or without counter air flows. Inone embodiment, steam is added near the end of the drying cycle when themoisture content is low to assist in avoiding product scorching.Further, one or more additional mediums selected from temperaturecontrolled air, steam, superheated steam, radio frequency, and infraredradiation can be used to assist the explosive dehydration and/or waterremoval in the microwave.

Delivering the desired drying rates can be achieved in a variety ofdifferent microwave applicators. Specialist applicators such as themeander apparatus for potato chip manufacture disclosed by Sprecher inU.S. Pat. No. 5,298,707 may achieve the target drying rates but presentsignificant complexity when it comes to building a commercial scalesystem (typically 50 kg/hr and above). Therefore a multimode cavity ispreferred for use at commercial scales for reasons including designsimplicity, high power handling capability and relative cost. Forexample, The Ferrite Company Inc. (Nashua, USA—www.ferriteinc.com) sellbacon cooking lines based on multimode cavities measuring 1.3 m wide,3.7 m long and 0.8 m high, with up to 150 kW microwave generator powerat 915 MHz per cavity. These cavities may be installed in drying trainsof, for example, six or more units.

Delivering the desired dehydration rates in food slices is possible inother applicator types such as monomode, slotted line, meander, fringingfield, phase controlled (e.g. EP 792085), but these cavities do notdeliver economic scalability as easily or as advantaged for snack foodmanufacture as with multimode.

For example, monomode applicators have width limitations (e.g. 15 cm at896 MHz for WR975 waveguide), require a conveyor feed (therefore cannottumble food slices) and the single high intensity mode may not deliveruniform heating for foodstuffs such as potato slices. In contrast, thoseskilled in the art will appreciate that various designs can beimplemented within multimode applicators that will deliver effective andefficient drying of food slices and that well designed multimode ovencavities can be tailored to uniform drying of particular food slices.

Multimode oven cavities can be designed for uniformly presented anddeposited food slices of even weight that are suitable for monolayertransport through a belted cavity. Equally multimode ovens can bedesigned for non-uniform, randomly presented food slices of variableweight (for example potato slices from an Urschell CC slicer) that arevery difficult to singulate and monolayer for uniform presentation tothe microwave field. In summary, multimode provides the greatestflexibility in designing a process to suit the product.

In the latter case, where it is complex or inefficient to effectivelymonolayer the food slices, multimode oven cavities can be built for deepbed transport of food slices, meaning the food slices are transportedwith continuous, controlled agitation in non-continuous non-intimatecontact with each other, for example in a tumbling action. A cavitydesigned with this functionality maximizes the number of slices that canbe transported in a given area which translates to higher throughput perarea of plant and will minimize food slices sticking to each other,enables steam escape from both sides of the slice and can induce a morenatural curl appearance to the finished chip. A further benefit is thereduced equipment footprint compared to an oven cavity that relies onmonolayer, particularly of randomly presented food slices which causesbelt loading to be particularly low to ensure no prolonged slice toslice contact that could lead to adhesion between slices during thedrying step. Since the rotary microwave chamber can be divided intoseparate zones or independent cavities a high degree of control can beattained on the chip exit temperature and moisture values. The deep bedand low drying rate during the R3 period in the final rotary microwavecavity, ensures moisture equilibration between food slices and chips of3% to 7% moisture can be consistently produced, which positivelybenefits final flavour and texture. Drying to lower moisture in amicrowave chamber significantly reduces the time required in the finishdry stage 300 and therefore minimizes the risk of undesirable oxidativereactions. These are known to occur when processors air dry for extendedtime periods because it has previously been necessary to exit microwavedryers at higher moisture contents to avoid the snack productoverheating and burning due to the limits of process design disclosed inprior art resulting in a mismatch between product load and microwavepower.

Preferred methods to achieve deep bed transport through tumbling actionhave been categorized as rotary form microwaves and include, but are notlimited to, using what Applicants refer to as Catenary Belt, RotatingDrum, and Rotating Cavity microwave ovens designs. Each of these designsis discussed below. Any of these rotary forms may contain combinationsof longitudinal flights for lifting food slices and spirals for controlof residence time distribution.

A Catenary Belt design is a static multimode cavity or enclosure with amodular polymer belt (for example Intralox) inclined a few degrees inthe direction of product travel. Two different embodiments of theCatenary Belt design are shown in FIGS. 7 and 8. FIG. 7 is a schematicperspective representation of a Catenary Belt microwave unit wherein thebelt 702 enters the microwave cavity (the “enclosure”) at a microwavechoke 706 located at the top of the unit. FIG. 8, on the other hand, isa cross-section view of an embodiment wherein the belt 802 enters themicrowave cavity through a choke 806 located near the bottom of theunit.

Referring to FIG. 7, the modular belt 702 (also referred to byApplicants to reflect this embodiment as the “Catenary Belt”) is routedover two rollers 704, at least one of which is a drive roller whichdrives the modular belt 702 into the microwave cavity. The modular belt702 enters the microwave cavity through a microwave choke 706. Productenters the microwave cavity by virtue of a conveyor 710 through amicrowave choke 712. Although not shown in the drawing, product exitsthe unit through a similar conveyor and microwave choke at the rear ofthe unit. The modular belt 702 exits the microwave cavity though anothermicrowave choke 708 located at the top of the unit. This particular unitwould also have some type of belt cleaning apparatus, usually situatedbetween the two rollers 704, but is not illustrated in FIG. 7.

Referring to the cross-section view shown in FIG. 8 of a secondembodiment, again the modular belt 802 is routed over at least two, andin this instance three, rollers 804, with at least one of them being adrive roller. The modular belt 802 enters the static microwave cavity orenclosure through a microwave choke 806 near the base of the unit.Product 812 can be seen tumbling on one corner of the modular belt 802in a deep bed configuration. This tumbling is induced as the belttravels towards an exit microwave choke 808. Also depicted in FIG. 8 isa belt cleaning unit 814.

The belt loci within the cavity in a Catenary Belt design effectivelysimulate the quadrant of food slice contact surface formed by a rotarydrum. Modular belts are advantaged because they can be made to formeffective radii or arcs by control of the size of their catenary sag,construction of individual belt segments, external drive locations andfeed points through the microwave cavity. The advantage of this designis to drive the belt 702, 802 externally to the cavity and to ensurethat no polymer part remains within the cavity for more than a fewseconds, which therefore enables continuous in-line belt cleaning toremove build-up of product debris and dielectric coatings deposited fromthe food slices.

A Rotating Drum design is a static multimode cavity with a rotating druminclined a few degrees in the direction of product travel enclosedtherein. The drum is constructed at least in part of microwavetransparent materials and configured to allow water vapour to escape atrequired rates for example using perforated drum walls and/or effectiveair flow allow the food slices therein contained to be heated directlyby microwave energy and for steam to escape. Similarly, if spirals areused within the drum, preferably the spirals are made from microwavetransparent materials and are perforated to reduce risk of slicessticking and to allow steam to effectively escape. The drum can bemounted on a drive system internal to the cavity/enclosure or can besuspended in the cavity/enclosure and driven from outside thecavity/enclosure via the suspension mechanism.

A Rotating Cavity design is a multimode cavity that acts to both containthe microwave field and to transport the product. The cavity/enclosureis mounted on an external drive system, similar to rotary hot air dryersknown within industry, and preferably the whole cavity/enclosure isrotated between static end plates to avoid the need for rotary chokes oneach individual waveguide feed, product transport infeed, productdischarge, air inlet and steam extract ducts etc. Alternately, at leastone end plates is static to house waveguide feeds, product transportinfeed and discharge, air inlet and steam extract ducts. Thus, thisembodiment comprises a rotating enclosure, as opposed to the staticenclosures of the two previous design examples.

FIG. 9 is an illustration of a two-cavity embodiment of the RotatingCavity microwave unit. This unit comprises a first cavity/enclosure 902and a second cavity/enclosure 904 that both rotate on, and are drivenby, drive wheels 906 that are external to each of the cavities 902, 904.One or more wave guide feeds 916, at different orientations, can be usedto control cross-talk between microwave signals. One or more microwavefeeds 918 can penetrate into the cavity as well, to allow morecontrolled delivery of microwave energy. In a preferred embodiment, aduct 922 communicates with the cavities in order to facilitate hot airfeed and/or steam extraction. This duct 922, in a preferred embodiment,is a polymer sleeve insert. At least one separate wave guide feed 920provides microwave energy specific to the second cylinder 904. In oneembodiment, the two rotating microwave cavities are separate and joinedonly be a product transport conveyor to ensure complete control over themicrowave power levels applied to each chamber. An end-feed conveyor 910routed through a microwave choke 922 is used to introduce product intothe first cavity. As the cylinders 902, 904 rotate and tumble theproduct within the cavity, a slight incline on the entire unit causes agravity feed of the product from the first cylinder 902 into the secondcylinder 904. Product is then removed from the second cylinder 904 byanother conveyor 914 that also passes through a microwave choke 924. Inone embodiment the microwave choke and product release at the exit ofthe chamber is accomplished by the use of a rotating vane or valve withseveral pockets.

It should be noted that full microwave drying can be completed in asingle rotary microwave form (Rotary Drum, Rotary Cavity, or CatenaryBelt Design) if for example the product transfer between 2 or morecavities has a negative impact on the finished product attributes.Additionally, a single flatbed microwave dryer with linear conveyor canbe used for the explosive drying step 200 if the food slices can bemonolayered and separated by around at least 5 mm from other slices.

Each rotary microwave form design (Catenary Belt, Rotating Drum, andRotating Cavity) benefits from longitudinal flights to lift and tumblethe product slices on the walls of the drum, cavity or belt. While thisis sufficient to control the tumbling action and transport of the foodslices, additional features may also be added, for example an internalspiral or helix of fixed or variable pitch in a rotating cavity or drumcan improve control of residence time, along the full length or partlength of the drum or cavity. For example the Applicants have found thatin a Rotary Drum with longitudinal flights, adding a spiral in the lasthalf of the drum significantly improved residence time distribution andespecially reduced the number of “flyers” (slices which travel tooquickly through the drum and without substantially complete drying). Thedesign of the spiral, flights and drum is critical to ensuresubstantially no risk of slices being trapped within the drum andbecoming a fire hazard. Any of the designs may be configured assinglezone or multizone drying trains and the drying efficiency of anyof the microwave ovens may be assisted by hot air, steam, superheatedsteam, infrared or other methods of heat and energy transfer.

Each design has different advantages and challenges when considered forcommercial production. Static cavities, such as is found in the CatenaryBelt embodiment and the Rotating Drum embodiment, allow power feedlocations to be selected over a very large area of the cavity andpreferred feed arrangements are well known in the art. This is importantfor large-scale installations that may draw 1 MW or more per cavity.Rotary cavities restrict the area available for microwave power inputs.The static end plates provide the greatest area but present additionaldesign complexity, for example: avoidance of cross-coupling of microwavefields between multiple feeds in close proximity, mechanical design toallow the static end plate to act as a door to allow personnel access tothe cavity for cleaning, maintenance etc.

On the other hand, a Rotating Drum stays within a static cavity duringprocessing and will be subjected to high temperatures (typically 100° C.and over) from contact with the hot food slices, steam generated by thefood slices, and possibly externally applied hot air and/or steam to aidthe drying process. Additionally the drum can become coated withdielectric materials (for example oil, starch, sugar, salt etc.) pickedup from contact with the food slice. The drum is made at least in partfrom microwave transparent components for which polymer is typicallyused for reasons including mechanical performance, microwavetransparency, cost and ability to be machined to desired form. Whenpolymer inside a microwave field becomes coated with dielectricmaterials, there is a significant risk that the coating will self-heatleading to damage or melting of the polymer, which is more likely withthe high microwave power densities required to achieve the initialdrying rates disclosed herein than in conventional microwave dryingprocesses such as bacon drying. To minimize the risk of damage topolymer parts within the microwave cavity, the polymer must bethoroughly cleaned on timescales typically more frequent thantraditional food production cleaning schedules would ideally allow (forexample daily rather than weekly in snacks manufacture). One way toimprove this situation is to use a Catenary Belt running through astatic cavity, which enables a polymer transport construction to be usedin the microwave field while also providing the opportunity forcontinuous cleaning, which considerably reduces the risk of damage tothe polymer.

A Rotating Cavity overcomes the disadvantages of having to use microwavetransparent materials or polymers inside the microwave oven cavity andeliminates any complex internal architecture that may be needed tosupport, drive or remove drums or belts for cleaning and maintenance.While it is possible to construct a rotating cavity with non-metalliclinings such as polymer, glass or ceramics to minimize or fullyeliminate sticking of food slices to the cavity walls and those liningscan have surface finishes applied to reduce effective surface contactarea, the preferred embodiment of the rotating cavity design uses themetal walls to tumble slices and therefore eliminates maintenance,sanitation and cleaning issues associated with the lining. The effectivecontact surface area between wall and food slice can be reduced usingtextured finishes such as dimples or grooves, or applying holes or slotsin the food slice contact metal surface itself in order to make themetal surface of the rotary drum less sticky to food slices. A suitableRotating Cavity material is stainless steel 6WL provided by RIMEX,although other microwave reflective materials may be used including butnot limited to metals such as Aluminum. The preferred embodiment is forsuch surface to comprise a non-stick metal surface. The food slices aretumbled in the microwave field by the rotating action of the cavity andlongitudinal flights. The cavity can be rotated using drives external tothe microwave field.

A preferred means of avoiding or reducing food slices sticking tocontact surfaces is to use a metal or non-metallic air knife within thecavity to blow stuck food slices off. Preferably the air knife usespre-heated air to avoid significantly cooling the food slices, assistwith water removal from the food slice and/or assist with water removalfrom the cavity. Substantially Oxygen-free gases can be used in the airknife such as Nitrogen to reduce oil related oxidation reactions.Preferably the gas temperature is between 30 and 100° C. and withimpingement velocities exceeding about 20 m/s at the food slice contactsurface. An advantage of a perforated cavity wall is that an externalair knife could be used instead of an internal air knife to blow stuckfood slices off the food contact surface whilst avoiding undesirableinteractions of for example a metallic air knife with the microwavefield, and avoiding slices trapping on the air knife as they tumble.

The Applicants have found that it may be necessary when explosivelydrying food slices in a Rotary Cavity, to include non-metallic foodcontact surface linings made from microwave-transparent materials forexample polymer, glass or ceramic to ensure the food slices couple themicrowave energy at sufficient intensity and/or continuously to ensureexplosive drying occurs. Such linings can have surface finishes toreduce sticking. The thickness of the lining can be chosen to be afunction of for example the lining dielectric properties and themicrowave operating frequency to encourage a field maxima to becoincident at the lining food contact surface so that the food sliceheating rate is maximized at this location, or a minimum at the liningfood contact surface so that self-heating of the lining or heating ofoil or starch or other materials coating the lining is minimized.

A disadvantage of rotary cavities is the complexity of the rotaryjointed choke that is required between the rotating cylinder and staticend plates. Static end plates are preferred to facilitate ingress andegress of food slices on linear conveyors, microwave power via rigidwaveguides and hot air and/or steam via conventional pipe work.

As shown in FIG. 9, multiple cavities may be placed in series to createa multizone dryer as described earlier in relation to the 3 phase dryingcurve. It should be understood that a multizone dryer can be createdfrom both multiple rotating cavities, and multiple static cavities, or acombination thereof or by combining linear, belted cavities with arotary form (cavity, drum or catenary design). One cavity may be usedfor a selected part of the drying curve only, for example half of phaseone, phase one only, or phase one and two together. In one embodiment,multiple cavities may be used for the first phase where powerrequirements are highest. Advantages have already been cited formultizone configurations using more than one microwave cavity, includingimproved control of power distribution, power tuning and consistency offinal product since the microwave cavity can be sized to the intendedproduct loading, dielectric properties or other drying characteristics.It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that there are manyapproaches to construct multiple multimode cavities, for example, bybaffling or otherwise partitioning a large single multimode cavity intotwo or more zones. The degree of isolation required between baffledzones within a single multimode cavity or multiple rotating multimodecavities (which are linked by rotary jointed chokes and not internallychoked) or combinations thereof may be high (e.g. 20 dB or more) togenerate the drying rates required to achieve the preferred productattributes, or low (e.g. around 10 dB) if a single drying rate zone issplit up into multiple cavities to assist power delivery. Alternatively,the static and/or rotary single or multiple multimode cavity(s) may beused without isolation such that the selected drying conditions (e.g.,water removal rate, moisture content entering and exiting microwavecavity) determine the preferred drying curve.

Baffling may be preferred where multiple static cavities are used inorder to minimize product transfer distances through full chokes, whichmay occur at critical points in the drying curve. While baffles can beinserted between sections of rotating drums or rotating cavities,rotating cavities with no other microwave containment also require arotary choke between rotary chambers. Such rotary jointed chokes arewell known, for example in radar applications, but are novel in thisapplication since they have not been used for rotary cavities ofdiameters up to around 3 m that are suitable for handling commercialscale snack production volumes. A notable advantage of rotary chokes isthe avoidance of large transfer zones, which may for example occurthrough discharge chokes, outlet conveyors and inlet conveyors betweenstatic multimode cavities. Such transfers can create opportunities forfood slices to be inadvertently held up in the microwave field. Therotary choke itself may only be a few centimeters wide and the productflow across the choke acts to clear slices should any become held up.

An important design consideration for tumbling of food slices (whetherby drum, rotating cavity or modular belt) is the balance betweeninertial and gravitational forces to achieve sufficient non-intimatecontact with minimal physical damage. Trivial cases are when rotationalspeeds are too high, food slices will stick to the contact surfacethrough centrifugal forces; if the rotational speed is too low, foodslices will slide against the contact surface. Suitable conditions fordelivery of preferred product attributes depend largely on drum diameter(or effective diameter if the modular belt design previously describedis used) and rpm. Additionally, use of longitudinal flights, weirs,spirals or other devices which assist the tumbling action of the foodslices have a significant impact on delivery of preferred productattributes. One useful approach to maintain optimum tumbling conditions(during scale-up or when using multiple rotating cavities of differentdiameters) is use of rpm, circumferential speed and the Froude number.The Froude number (Fr) is a non-dimensional scale-up parameter definedas N² D/g for rotating drums, where N is drum rpm, D is the diameter (m)and g is gravity (m/s²).

Referring back to FIG. 1, after the explosive dehydration step 200, theslices can be finish dried 300 to a moisture content of less than about3% by weight of potato solids in the finished chip. A hot air dryerhaving a belt configuration operating at about 80° C. to about 140° C.or other suitable methods can be used alone or in combination. Othersuitable finish drying 300 methods include one or more drying methodsselected from hot air, infrared, radio frequency, and microwave. Theslices can optionally be salted or seasoned 400 by methods well known inthe art. An oil spray step can be used after the finish dry step 300either before or in conjunction with the seasoning step 400 to tailorthe final oil content and assist with seasoning adhesion.

The above unit operation examples are provided by way of illustrationand not by way of limitation. Further, those skilled in the art willappreciate that many of the processes discussed with the potato sliceembodiment above can be used with other food slices, including, but notlimited to, beets, beans, carrots, bananas, apples, strawberries,lentils, wheat, rice, parsnips, Jerusalem artichokes, potatoes, noblenuts, peanuts and coated peanuts, masa, and corn. Starchy tubers areespecially preferred. Further, those skilled in the art will recognizethat if processing steps are applied to other raw foods besidespotatoes, such foods may require processing times and temperaturesdifferent than those disclosed. However, such embodiments are intendedto be covered by the claims scope of the present invention.

Doughs, in accordance with the present invention, can comprise entirelyfresh or frozen raw materials or a mixture of fresh, frozen and driedraw materials such as native or modified starches. In a preferredembodiment the fresh, frozen or dried raw materials are selected from anatural vegetable source.

Additional ingredients including, but not limited to, seasoning, oil,nuts, seeds, pulses, and other inclusions such as fresh or dried herbsand spices may also be added to a dough. One advantage of the inventionis that relatively fragile dough, for example with high moisturecontents, for example from 65% to 85%, that may not be sufficientlycohesive for frying can be processed and dried using the continuous beltmicrowave or batch microwave embodiments of this invention. A dough witha high moisture content will occur in, for example, the manufacture of avegetable chip from natural ingredients which have high native moisturecontents. In a preferred embodiment, recipes are crafted to makeexceptionally tasty vegetable chips using only real, non-artificial,food ingredients. The processing solutions disclosed enable theserecipes to be converted to snack chips that meet or exceed thesophisticated nutritional criteria that is emerging in developed snacksmarkets for healthy eating while retaining a clean ingredientdeclaration in the finished product and delivering both an authenticreal food taste and a clean fingered eating experience.

With the invention disclosed here, it is feasible to prepare food slicesfrom any combination of up to 100% vegetables or other food ingredients.In a preferred embodiment, potato or another starchy tuber, for examplesweet potato, swede, butternut squash or parsnip comprise at least oneof the vegetable ingredients in a vegetable chip recipe. By way ofexample, a vegetable chip can be made from real food ingredientscomprising potato and from 10% to 55% other vegetables and/or pulsesand/or legumes or preferably potato and 15% to 30% other vegetablesand/or pulses and/or legumes or more preferably potato and 20% to 25%other vegetables and/or pulses and/or legumes. The potato and othervegetables are cooked via conventional methods from fresh or frozen andthen mashed or mixed to form a dough. The dough is preferably seasonedby adding natural ingredients selected from vegetables, herbs, spices,seeds and oils prior to forming a chip shape. In a preferred embodiment,oil is added the dough to give a vegetable chip with an oil contentbetween 5% and 30% or preferably between around 10% and 25% or morepreferably between 13% and 18% oil content. The wide range of oils thatare suitable for this invention have previously been disclosed but arepreferably selected from olive oil, sunflower oil, high or mid oleicsunflower oil, sesame oil, corn oil, cottonseed, rapeseed, nut and otherseed oils. In addition, popular fats often found in culinary recipes maybe included, for example butter. Some or all the ingredients may beprepared using culinary methods to enhance their flavour prior toinclusion in the dough. Culinary preparation methods include but are notlimited to pan-frying, sautéing, caramelizing, smoking, roasting,marinating, slow cooking or mirepoix. In one embodiment soffritto, amethod to sauté aromatic ingredients in cooking oil after which a greatvariety of vegetable ingredients may be added, is the preferred culinarypreparation technique. Culinary preparation usually also includes sizereduction, for example by using Julienne or Brunoise methods. Onceformed and dried, the dough may optionally be lightly salted topicallyand/or optionally topically seasoned further with an infused oil.

A suitable dough may be prepared using familiar kitchen methods anddomestic practice. For example, optionally peeling and then choppingpotatoes and other vegetables ready for steam cooking on a stovetop.Once softened, a hand masher can be used to make the dough andoptionally incorporate culinary ingredients, for example olive oil,roasted peppers, sautéed onion, salt and pepper or others as describedabove. A wide blade spatula or rolling pin can be used to form a thinsheet that is sufficiently consistent in the range of around 1 mm to 4mm thickness from the dough from which shapes can be cut with a pastrycutter. Shapes can be lifted and placed into the non-oil dryingapparatus using a spatula. The formed shapes can be placed ongreaseproof paper that has been folded lengthways at intervals of around5 mm to create a multitude of crenellations on which to rest the foodslice for non-oil drying. While domestic non-oil drying or bakingmethods are suitable for drying this product, those skilled in the artshould understand that the preferred drying rates disclosed are arequirement for the optimal, shelf stable snack product quality and aretypically out of the achievable range of domestic non-oil dryingequipment, for example domestic microwave ovens.

A commercial process may follow the steps disclosed here. Commercialscale processing solutions to cook fresh or frozen materials inpreparation for making a sheet or dough are known from the prior art andcurrent industrial practice in, for example, the potato flakingindustry. Typically the process involves peeling and size reduction, forexample by chopping potatoes in half, dicing or slabbing, followed bysteam or water cooking. Many equipment manufacturers including Heat andControl or Kronen supply suitable peeling equipment. Kronen, amongstothers, also supply suitable size reduction equipment for example theKUJ 3D Dicer/Slabber, which enables whole potatoes to be reduced toslabs around 20 to 25 mm thick. This is a preferred size reductionmethod as it enables consistent heat transfer by presenting relativelyuniform pieces to the subsequent cooking step while minimizing theexposure of free starch that would be vulnerable to excessivegelatinization and therefore could result in excessive stickiness thatmakes the dough more difficult to handle and form reproducibly into afood slice. Similar equipment can also be used to size reduce othervegetables for a cooking step. Amongst others, Lyco manufacture a rangeof rotary drum blanchers, BMA and ABCO supply steam based heat and holdsystems capable of cooking either potato or vegetable material. Cookingtimes are well established by equipment fabricators and vary accordingto piece size, raw material variety, solids and desired cooked texturebut are typically of the order of 10 to 20 minutes at around 90 C to 100C and preferably around 15 to 20 mins at 95 C to 99 C for the 25 mmslabs of potato described here. In one preferred embodiment, thepotatoes used for the vegetable chip or another dough based food slicecontain a starch solids content of 18% to 28% and more preferably starchsolids in the range 21% to 24%. The frozen potato and potato specialtyindustries utilize equipment such as Alimetec's Hoegger Separator tomake smooth dough from raw materials, but especially potato, cooked inthis manner. Conventional snack food slice preparation equipment, forexample a masa sheeter and cutter, can be used to form and depositshapes from the dough. Alternatively, the principles taught by U.S. Pat.No. 4,212,609 whereby a uniform air pressure ejects food material from aporous mould on a rotating drum can be adapted to the food slice formingfor this invention. In a preferred embodiment a uniquely shallow mouldof around 1 mm to 4 mm depth and preferably 1.5 mm to 2.5 mm is designedspecifically for food slice forming and deposition onto a moving belt.The shape of an individual mould may vary in comparison to adjacentmoulds in order to produce different shapes, for example by changing thecircumferences or planes of the mould. Therefore, one important benefitthat improves the natural appearance of the chip is the ability todeposit free form shapes without the need for tessellation of theshapes, which requires straight edges to the chip that can lookunnatural in the finished chip, or recirculation of the fragile dough,which is required with current non-tessellated commercial snack formingmethods. In addition, multiple and different shapes may be depositedfrom the same machine almost simultaneously.

Recently, Stork Food Systems have introduced their Revo Fomer (patentapplication WO 2004/002229), which operates on the principle of formingvarious food patties from meat, fish or potato in rotating porous mouldsand then expelling the food patties with uniformly distributed forcedair. This equipment offers an alternative to conventional food slicesheeting systems, for example masa sheeters used in the production ofcorn chips, since the moulds of the Revo Former can be adapted to formand deposit thin food slices in different shapes as described above inan efficient, high speed and sanitary manner suitable for use atcommercial production rates in this invention. In addition to theadvantages of air eject systems above, because the food slices areuniquely expelled from a mould and do not need to be cut from the dough,this forming method is able to handle real food recipes, which maycontain fibrous or stringy ingredients, for example vegetables, legumespulses or whole grains including husk, that would typically contaminatea traditional snacks forming, cutting and depositing operation.

By way of example, the food slices may be 1 mm up to 4 mm thickness, butpreferably 1.5 mm to 2.5 mm in thickness, and comprise freshly cookeddough made from, for example, corn, corn and other grains or wholegrains, potato or potato and other vegetables or pulses. One advantageof this forming system compared to the prior art is to shape and deposituniform food slices from a dough made from real, whole food, freshingredients, that result in the nature of the dough ranging from fragileand non-cohesive to relatively soft and sticky with a tendency to ordeform under its own weight. The air-eject forming system preferred forthis invention ensures uniform deposition of the dough as a food sliceregardless of the high native moisture content, relatively low bindingstarch content and absence of dough tenderizing, emulsifying or otherartificial ingredients known to those skilled in the art. Moisturecontents may be 65% or greater on a wet basis, for example 78% to 82%for a potato based dough or from 65% to 85% but preferably from 70% to80% with a potato and other vegetable based dough. Therefore, in adeparture from prior art, for example United States Patent 2006/0188639or United States Patent 2005/0202142, the processing method disclosed isnot dependant on preparing dough with the specific properties typicallyassociated with snacks manufacturing and can form and dry food slicesfrom doughs comprising 100% fresh, non-artificial materials, without theneed to add dough binding ingredients, moisture binding ingredients,de-gumming agents, dry solids, starches, granules, lecithin or any otheringredient which some consumers or nutritionists may prefer to avoid infood products. Neither is it necessary to fragment and recombine thedough as a laminate or cluster. Therefore, this method of forming anddepositing enables snack foods, but particularly vegetable chips fromreal vegetables, to be manufactured and labeled with a clean ingredientdeclaration.

Furthermore, the non-fried method disclosed for drying the food slicecan manufacture vegetable chips at commercial line throughputscomparable to large snacks manufacturing lines today without the need tofry, the most popular and highly efficient method of drying fresh, highmoisture raw materials for snacks today.

Using the air eject method, as embodied by the Revo Former, to depositfood slices in a uniform manner onto a moving belt, which enters alinear explosive drying step, is an effective method of enabling the useof high intensity, explosive microwave drying at commercial throughputs.As discussed previously, randomly presented food slices, for examplefrom an Urshcell CC slicer, result in poor efficiency in both thethroughput and the footprint occupied by a linear, belted explosivedrying step since, to minimize fire risk and avoid product pieceswelding together, it is necessary to maintain separation between foodslices, which in turn introduces complex technology challenges to spacethe slices to an extent that reduces the energy transfer efficiencyduring explosive microwave drying.

When the processor wishes to incorporate oil or an optional medley ofother ingredients to enhance the flavour experience or nutritionalbenefit of the food slice a simple mixing step can be included prior toforming. The Hobart Legacy is one example of a suitable mixer of thebowl and beater paddle type commonly used in the bakery industry Otherexamples are the vertical Brook Foods Record Planetary mixer or ahorizontal Winkworth continuous ribbon mixer. However many industrialsolutions to mixing on a batch or continuous basis are readily availableaccording to the number and type of the ingredients in use and theprocessor must account for the preferred preparation method of eachingredient, for example grating, grinding, fine chopping or shreddingand important food manufacturing standards, for example hygiene,associated with processing high moisture dough. In the embodiment of avegetable chip recipe described above, the mixer will combine thepotato, other vegetables, oil and ingredients in a time intervaltypically from between 10 seconds to 120 seconds but preferably around30 seconds. The vegetables introduced to the mixer via thepotato-cooking unit or a separate cooking unit with the oil and otheringredients added separately.

In a preferred embodiment and to improve the creativity of the recipeand enhance the food flavours of the final chip, vegetables other thanpotato may be prepared individually or may in whole or part be combinedand prepared using any of a number of culinary preparation methods in asingle or sequential series of steps. Equipment that enables a foodprocessor to prepare chopped, diced or slabbed vegetables for use in thedough described and to replicate the culinary preparation steps,commonly found in cookery books and used in a kitchen by a chef, isknown from the prepared food categories for fillings and sauces, forexample the Stephan Universal Machine. The Universal Machine is notknown for use in snack food manufacturing and therefore has newapplication in the disclosure provided here. The Universal Machine issuitable for a preferred Soffritto embodiment to generate authenticculinary flavours from the recipe in one step, for example by sautéingonion and other aromatic ingredients followed by cooking carrot,parsnip, broccoli or other vegetables to prepare a vegetable recipewithout potato. The Universal Machine conveys additional benefits to thevegetable chip process efficiency and control. For example, efficientlysimulating Brunoise preparation, a further size reduction of thevegetables and ingredients from diced chunks to small shreds that willremain visible and distinguishable pieces in the final chip and aresuitable for inclusion in the dough. Another efficiency advantage may berealized by pressure cooking the vegetable recipe in the UniversalMachine to enable more rapid cooking cycles. A further use of theUniversal Machine benefits process consistency by reducing the moisturecontent of the prepared vegetables and ingredients to a consistent levelprior to mixing with the potato portion of the dough via a reduction ofpressure at the end of the cooking cycle to allow a portion of water toevaporate at pressure below 200 mbar or preferably between 70 mbar and100 mbar using residual heat energy. The moisture content of theprepared vegetable mix may be reduced from, for example 85% to 65% butpreferably to between 70% and 75% water content while under vacuum withno additional heat input. Therefore, the processor has a dough moisturecontrol step that alleviates the load on subsequent drying steps andthat eliminates complications that may occur when forming and depositingif the food slice moisture is excessively high, causing syneresis orproduct draping into the transport belt. The prepared vegetable recipewith culinary ingredients can be mixed with potato and oil to form therecipes disclosed below. Alternatively, after moisture reduction thevegetable recipe can be formed and deposited directly. In this lattercase the vegetable chip should be deposited onto a transport belt with aweave that minimizes product drape or collapse. The addition of pulses,legumes, rice flour, gram flour or another binding ingredient may bedesirable in the embodiment of this non-potato recipe for ease ofprocessing.

In a preferred embodiment of this invention, a food slice prepared inthis way will be transferred directly to a linear belt microwave forexplosive drying. No other treatment or preparation steps are necessaryusing the disclosures of this invention. Several suitable belt types,made from for example polypropylene, polyethylene or PTFE coatedfiberglass, are available from microwave oven manufacturers to transportthe food slices in this application.

In one embodiment, the vegetable food slice is rapidly dried to amoisture content around 15% to 25%, close to the final glass transitionpoint when potato is present, in under 90 seconds. In a preferredembodiment the dough slice is dried to the same moisture level in 15seconds to 60 seconds and more preferably the vegetable food slice isdried to moisture content at or below 25% in 25 seconds to 35 seconds.At this stage, drying may continue in the same microwave chamber to amoisture content between 18% to 5% but preferably to between 12% to 8%.An example of the drying rate curve for a vegetable chip product isprovided in FIG. 10.

FIG. 10 is a graphical representation of the dehydration rate of aplurality of vegetable food slices in accordance with one embodiment ofthe present invention. As shown in FIG. 10, there are three distinctdrying phases that have a high linear correlation. the first phasedehydration rate 1022 is about 0.13 grams moisture per gram of solid persecond, the second phase dehydration rate 1026 is about 0.05 gramsmoisture per gram of solid per second, and the third phase 1030comprises a dehydration rate of about 0.01 grams water per gram of solidper second.

The exit moisture will in part depend on the ingredients of thecomposite food slice being processed. In one embodiment, food slicesthat continue to be dried by microwave cooking are transferred to aseparate zone in the microwave chamber or to a separate microwave cavitywhen the moisture content is around 25%. A separate microwave cavity maybe of the linear belted form or rotary form. The power is thenindependently controlled to reduce moisture content to somewhere in therange of 18% to 3% but preferably in the range of 12% to 8% moisturebefore entering a conventional hot air oven to reach the final shelfstable, snackable moisture content around 2%. In an alternativeembodiment drying from around 25% moisture to 2% is completed in a hotair, multizone oven as for conventional snack foods. In one embodiment,slices are final dried in a hot air oven at between 110 C to 130 C untilshelf stable moisture of around 2% is achieved. As discussed earlier,the initial rapid drying is a unique method for simulating the friedtexture of, for example potato chips, for non-fried food slices madefrom fresh, real ingredients and the subsequent slower drying at lowermoisture contents ensures desirable flavour and controllable colourdevelopment. The exact choice of temperature and process conditions forthe final drying stages will depend in part on the food slice recipe inuse and the level of temperature sensitive food chemistry reactions, forexample maillard browning, that occur due to the ingredients present. Inthe embodiment of a vegetable chip, formed from a dough, comprisingprimarily potato or potato and other vegetables, into a food slice of 1mm to 4 mm, but preferably 1.5 mm to 2.5 mm deep pieces with a moisturecontent of 65% to 85% but preferably 70% to 80% the drying rates aredisclosed below.

TABLE 3 Drying Rates by phase for potato based food slices formed fromdough suitable for vegetable chip manufacture: rates given are gram ofmoisture removed per gram of dry matter (dry basis) Minimum PreferredRange Maximum Phase 1 0.04 0.06-0.18 0.20 Phase 2 0.01 0.03-0.06 0.08Phase 3 0.0005 0.002-0.02  0.03

The preferred drying rates for this invention are particularly rapid andthe total explosive drying time for a vegetable chip made with thisprocess is typically between 30 and 60 seconds in which time themoisture content may be reduced to between 3% to 18% but preferablybetween 8% and 12% with a consistency that avoids excessive browning orscorching of individual chips. The drying may happen in a single lineardryer or in multiple linear dryers. The rapid drying assists with thegeneration of a desirable, crisp snacks texture without the formation oflarge bubbles in the chips that can lead to a fragile and brokenfinished product.

The duration of phase 1 will depend on the exact quantity of startingmoisture in the dough and may be indistinguishable from phase 2,depending on the quantity of vegetable ingredients other than potatowhich are used in the recipe. As discussed earlier, Phase 2 represents asignificant carbohydrate transition, which occurs from around 50%average moisture content to around 25% average moisture content and isthought to be related to starch transitions in a potato based foodslice. For a potato slice with the applicants preferred texture, thePhase 2 period is between about 5 seconds and about 50 seconds orpreferably between about 10 seconds and about 30 seconds Those skilledin the art will appreciate that the drying times disclosed are extremelyrapid compared to conventional non-frying technologies. Therefore, afundamental advantage of this invention versus other heating methods ishigh capacity manufacturing of non-fried snacks. Thus, this inventionovercomes the limitations on profitable, commercial manufacture ofnon-fried snacks. This limiting barrier occurs due to the fresh startingmaterial that, while conveying benefits to the finished consumerproduct, requires large volumes of water to be removed. The limitingbarrier is particularly increased due to the light piece weight of foodslices that are suitable for snacking, especially when in the form of achip that yields low product weight per area of transport belt. Thelimiting barrier is further increased when the light weight food slicecomprises a dough where the properties are such that individual piecesmust maintain their singulation, for example in a mono layered bakeryline configuration, to avoid sticking, clumping or other shape defects.Thus, in an unfavourable difference compared to sweet or bread bakinglines, a non-fried snacks line that produces thin, bite size pieceswhere the weight of 10 dried pieces may range from just 7 g to 15 g orpreferably 8 g to 12 g, will have to dry product at low piece density,for example 1 kilogram per square metre of wet food slices. Theselimitations, particularly when occurring in combination, drive largedimensions, energy inefficiency and low throughput snack manufacturinglines when utilizing prior art or conventional non-fried dryingtechnology, for example impingement ovens. By way of example of themagnitude of this benefit, the applicants estimate that preparation of asnack food from a food slice comprising 75% native moisture contentrequires the removal of up to 9 times more water than a conventionalbaked snack product. The application of the technology solutionsdisclosed ensures this requirement can be achieved with a drying trainsimilar in size to conventional snack food manufacturing lines today.

The processor may elect to use conventional snacks seasoning equipment,to apply an optional dusting of topical salt or oil.

By way of example, and by no means limitation, real food recipessuitable for the food slices described, particularly the vegetable chipembodiment, and that can be processed into consumer-optimized snackswith crisp-like texture by drying to approximately 2% moisture are:

Example 1 (by wet dough mix weight): 85% potato, 12% legumes, forexample chickpea, 3% oil, 0.1% coriander leaf, 0.1% whole cumin; whichis equivalent to a finished chip of 72% potato, 16% chickpea, 11% oil,0.5% coriander leaf, 0.5% cumin by weight;

Example 2 (by wet dough mix weight): 49% potato, 46% lentils, forexample Chana Dhal lentils, 4% oil, 1% herbs and spices to season, forexample selected from chili, garlic, cumin or turmeric; which isequivalent to a finished chip weight of 33% potato, 53% lentil, 13% oil,1% herbs and spices.

Example 3 (by wet dough mix weight): 70% potato, 25% mixed rootvegetables selected from, for example, carrot, parsnip and swede, 3%oil, 1.5% onions and 0.5% mixture of black pepper and herbs, for exampleselected from thyme, rosemary or tarragon to season; which is equivalentto a finished chip weight of 67% potato, 13% root vegetables, 16% oil,3% onion, and 0.5% mixture of black pepper and herbs.

Example 4: 70% potato, 25% cauliflower or other brassica, 3% oil, 1.5%onions, 0.2% ginger, 0.2% garlic; 0.1% turmeric; which is equivalent toa finished chip weight of 67% potato; 13% cauliflower, 16% oil, 3%onion, 0.5% ginger, 0.4% garlic and 0.1% turmeric.

Those skilled in the art will recognize that a range of novel, tasty andnutritionally balanced vegetable chips that are diverse in both theirrecipe combinations and ingredient levels, can be prepared using theexamples above. Therefore, this disclosure enables a novel bakedvegetable chip to be made that combines a plurality of real, naturalvegetables and is flavored with natural food ingredients that retaintheir authentic real food taste in the finished chip. This invention isnot limited to slices of a single vegetable, which offer little choicein taste and flavour to consumers, but has the advantage of blending thenutrition of vegetables with creative culinary recipes to greatlyenhance the taste and food experience. In addition, a surprisingdiscovery for the inventors is the low salt level that is required foroptimum taste of this culinary vegetable chip. The continuum of baserecipes may range from 100% potato to 100% other vegetables, pulseslegumes or whole grains. However, the preferred embodiment of avegetable chip comprises recipes where finished ingredient compositionsare in the range: potato 30% to 70%; Oil 5% to 30% and preferably 8% to25% and more preferably 13% to 18%; vegetables or pulses 10% to 55% andpreferably 15% to 30%; culinary prepared ingredients for example sautéedonion, leek or garlic, 0% to 5%; herbs, spices or seeds 0.5% to 2% andtopical salt 0% to 1.0% but preferably 0.2% to 0.4%.

There are several product advantages provided by the present inventionwhen used with dough based food slices to make vegetable chips. First,the process allows the nutritional profile of the product to becontrolled. Therefore, the resulting products can be designed to meetthe positive nutritional goals emerging in developed snacks marketstoday. For example, the vegetable chip embodiment described is capableof meeting the ‘healthy’ criteria of three or less and the ‘morehealthy’ of zero or less when measured by the Nutrient Profile Scoreproposed by the UK Food Standards Agency. In addition, the productdesigner, chef or other recipe creator can flexibly design a productfrom a plethora of natural ingredients to be both tasty and healthy bybalancing choice and level of ingredients with population nutritionstandards. For example, to meet Guideline Daily Amounts (GDA's) commonlyin use in the food industry of the European Union today or to ensure no‘Red’ signals occur on the Traffic Light system in use in the EU and UKtoday. Therefore this invention enables products to be designed not onlyto culinary recipes but also to target nutritional criteria in line withnational population goals. For example, maintaining the macro nutrientcontents per 100 g of finished chip for fat at <20 g, saturated fat <5g, Salt <1.5 g and sugar <22.5 g ensures that the macro nutrientspresent in the snack food comply to preferred nutrition criteria definedby the UK Food Standards Agency. This is a significant accomplishment inthe convenient food and snacks world, which benefits both themanufacturer, since there are no ‘high’ or ‘red traffic light’indicators required on pack and the consumer since the snack isnutritionally balanced and the snack experience is not compromised ontaste. In one embodiment of the vegetable chip the recipe delivers thenutrition profile to have fat <16 g, saturated fat <1.5 g, salt <1 g andsugar <10 g; and in another embodiment the vegetable chip recipe isdesigned to have fat <16 g, saturated fat <1.5 g, salt <0.3 g and sugar<5 g, where salt (sodium) and sugar are naturally present in theingredients and not introduced by the product designer.

As part of positive nutritional design, oil is added in controlledamounts either before and/or after the primary drying step. Oneadvantage of adding oil before the explosive dehydration is that it willbe heated for a short period toward the end of the explosive drying andthis develops desirable fried-flavor characteristics that are notdeveloped with conventional baking or impingement ovens.

Another advantage provided by the present invention is the processingtemperatures. Because the processing temperatures are relatively lowthroughout the food slice (e.g. can be maintained at about 100° C. evenon the outer skin) when compared to conventional hot oil frying, and theprocessing times are relatively short, e.g. less than about 60 secondsis achievable even for high moisture doughs, less of the inherentnutrition is expected to be destroyed during the drying process andnatural flavor characteristics of the substrate or added ingredientsderived from nuts, seeds, pulses, herbs, spices etc. are retained.Similarly, nutritionally desirable vitamins, essential fatty acids orphytonutrients inherent in the added ingredients or directly added forfortification are expected to be retained. Further, the low temperatureand short drying time benefits the use of natural ingredients if addedas flavorings or seasonings in dough-based embodiments. By definition,natural ingredients have originated from nature without undue processingand occur in forms that are readily recognizable as the originalingredient through, for example appearance, colour, flavour or textureeven after preparation for storage, which may include washing,blanching, smoking, dicing, freezing or storage in oil as examples.Natural ingredients can be incorporated into a food slice dough, to bevisible and recognizable in the snack foods manufactured with theapplicants disclosure, but are not typically suitable for topicalcoating of snacks foods due to their relatively large size and irregularshape. By contrast, ingredients that have been processed or homogenizedin form, for example powder, granulated or flaked and are no longerrecognizable from the original starting material would be consideredartificial and are typically used in topical coatings today.

When incorporated into food slice recipes natural ingredientssubstantially retain their fresh appearance due to the relatively lowdrying temperatures of this invention. By way of example only, freshmint or coriander leaf in the dough will appear much more fresh, greenand whole than when processed by a hot air oven which causes adegradation to appearance since the leaf becomes dark green andshriveled by the heat. This drying method and profile also helps toensure that any natural ingredients added can deliver an authentic,vibrant flavor to a finished product because the natural ingredientsadded for reasons of flavor, texture or fortification, can be expectedto retain a significant portion of their inherent nutritional andorganoleptic value without losing desirable aroma, flavor, color orphytonutrient compounds. Consequently, a significant advantage of thedough based food slices illustrated is to produce a snack where theflavour is derived entirely from the natural ingredients, for examplevegetables, herbs and spices, in the dough base. In this case, the snackdoes not require topical, powder seasoning that is typically used onsnack foods today. Therefore, the snack does not require powder, flake,granule or any artificial ingredient to be incorporated in the dough ofthe food slice or as a coating to the snack chip to deliver a consumeroptimized flavour. The absence of topical powders ensures the snack issubstantially clean on the fingers when eaten, thus avoiding a commonconsumer complaint of conventional snack foods. Furthermore, oneimportant benefit of the ability to make snack foods using naturalingredients is the relatively low sodium level required for aconsumer-optimized flavour. Typically, topically applied salt can bereduced to 25% to 50% of the level of potato crisps today or eliminatedfrom the recipe while still delivering a palatable consumer optimizedsnack flavour.

In addition, the present invention provides a way to provide a balancednutritional profile using real food ingredients, such as vegetables,nuts, seeds, herbs, and spices or cheese. Vegetables that can be usedinclude, but are not limited to carrots, parsnip, sweet potato, turnip,squash, courgette, asparagus, mushroom, broccoli, cauliflower, sweetpepper, chili pepper, peas, sweet corn, artichoke, celeriac, tomato,olives, aubergine, beetroot, fennel, onions, spinach, chard and cabbage.Nuts that can be used include, but are not limited to almonds, peanuts,walnuts, pecans, and brazils. Seeds that can be used include, but arenot limited to pumpkin, sunflower, sesame, mustard, fennel, poppy, andsquash. Pulses and legumes that can be used include but are not limitedto peas, chickpeas, lentils, pinto beans, kidney beans, broad beans,butter beans, soy beans, runner beans or black eye beans. Cereals thatcan be used include but are not limited to oats, wheat, sorghum, rice,millet, rye, and barley. Herbs and spices that can be used include butare not limited to basil, bay leaves, coriander, mint, cumin, cardamom,cloves, cinnamon, tarragon, dill, marjoram, garlic, lemongrass, oregano,paprika, turmeric, parsley, and pepper, just to name a few. Natural oilextracts, infused or seasoned oils can also be used either prior to orpost primary drying by mixing into the dough or applying topically.

Advantageously, because the real food ingredients can be added after anyblanching, thermal pre-conditioning or lipophilic preconditioning step,and because of the relatively lower temperatures and short dwell timeduring dehydration, the flavor profiles are more similar to the naturalcounterparts and more pronounced than prior art snacks that are cookedin high temperature ovens or fryers. Further, because there is no oil orwater medium, the nutrient content and flavor compounds do not leach outof the food slice so are available to be enjoyed in the final chip.Consequently, unlike the prior art, the present invention provides a wayto formulate natural flavor profiles without the use of artificialingredients.

While the invention has been particularly shown and described withreference to a preferred embodiment, it will be understood by thoseskilled in the art that various changes and form of detail may be madetherein without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.

1. A method for preparing shelf-stable food slices comprising the stepsof: a) thermally preconditioning a plurality of food slices; and b)explosively dehydrating said food slices to a moisture content of lessthan about 20% with a microwave.
 2. The method of claim 1 wherein saidfood slices of step a) comprise a dough and further wherein said thermalpreconditioning is performed on a food prior to said food being formedinto a slice comprising dough.
 3. The method of claim 2 wherein saiddough comprises potato and at least one other vegetable.
 4. The methodof claim 2 wherein said dough prior to thermal preconditioning comprisesfrom 65% to 85% water by weight.
 5. The method of claim 2 wherein saiddough prior to thermal preconditioning comprise from 70% to 80% water byweight.
 6. The method of claim 1 wherein the dehydrating at step b)comprises a par-dry to a half-product, and wherein further saidhalf-product is packaged for later finish drying by a consumer of saidproduct.
 7. The method of claim 1 wherein the dehydrating of step b)occurs in a belt microwave with evenly presented, substantiallymonolayered food slices.
 8. The method of claim 1 wherein thedehydrating of step b) occurs in a deep bed dryer.
 9. The method ofclaim 1 wherein the dehydrating of step b) comprises a first dehydrationrate and a second dehydration rate.
 10. The method of claim 9 whereinsaid explosive dehydration at step b) comprises a first dehydration rateof between about 0.02 grams of moisture per gram of solid per second andabout 0.20 grams of moisture per gram of solid per second.
 11. Themethod of claim 9 wherein said explosive dehydration in step b)comprises a first dehydration rate of between about 0.06 grams ofmoisture per gram of solid per second and about 0.18 grams of moistureper gram of solid per second.
 12. The method of claim 9 wherein saidexplosive dehydration at step b) comprises a second dehydration rate ofbetween about 0.004 grams of moisture per gram of solid per second andabout 0.08 grams of moisture per gram of solid per second.
 13. Themethod of claim 9 wherein said explosive dehydration in step b)comprises a second dehydration rate of between about 0.03 grams ofmoisture per gram of solid per second and about 0.06 grams of moistureper gram of solid per second.
 14. The method of claim 9 wherein saidexplosive dehydration at step b) further comprises a third dehydrationrate of between about 0.0005 grams of moisture per gram of solid persecond and about 0.03 grams of moisture per gram of solid per second.15. The method of claim 9 wherein said third dehydration rate is betweenabout 0.002 grams of moisture per gram of solid per second and about0.02 grams of moisture per gram of solid per second.
 16. The method ofclaim 1 wherein oil is added to said slices prior to step b).
 17. Themethod of claim 16 wherein the oil is conditioned prior to use as anadditive, thereby increasing the fried characteristics provided by theadded oil.
 18. The method of claim 16 wherein said oil is added by anoil spray in a rotary drum.
 19. The method of claim 16 wherein the oilis added to a dough thereby bringing the oil content of the dough tobetween 5% and 30% by weight.
 20. The method of claim 19 wherein saidoil content of said dough is between 13% and 18% by weight.
 21. Themethod of claim 1 wherein said thermal preconditioning at step a)comprises lipophilic preconditioning.
 22. The method of claim 21 whereinfurther the food slices are subjected to an oil removal step after thethermal preconditioning of step a) and before the dehydrating of stepb).
 23. The method of claim 22 wherein the food slices are subjected toa pre-drying step after the oil removal step and prior to thedehydrating of step b).
 24. The method of claim 23 wherein saidpre-drying occurs in a microwave pre-dryer.
 25. The method of claim 23wherein said pre-drying takes from about 5 seconds to about 90 seconds.26. The method of claim 23 wherein said pre-drying takes from about 10seconds to about 20 seconds.
 27. The method of claim 23 wherein at leastone quarter of the water content of the food product is removed duringpre-drying.
 28. The method of claim 1 wherein said explosive dehydrationat step b) occurs in a rotary microwave.
 29. The method of claim 1wherein step b) further comprises dehydrating to a moisture content ofbetween about 3% and about 18%.
 30. The method of claim 1 wherein stepb) further comprises dehydrating to a moisture content of between about8% and about 12%.
 31. The method of claim 1 wherein step b) occurs undervacuum.
 32. The method of claim 1 wherein said slices in step a) are afood product consisting primarily of a food material selected from thegroup of corn, waxy corn, oats, wheat, sorghum, rice, waxy rice, kidneybeans, pinto beans, lentils, chickpea, potato, Jerusalem artichoke, yam,tapioca, yucca, tarot, sweet potato, beet, carrot, arrowroot, cassaya,and parsnip.
 33. The method of claim 1 wherein said slice in step a)comprises one or more vegetables selected from the group consisting ofcarrots, parsnip, sweet potato, turnip, squash, courgette, asparagus,mushroom, broccoli, cauliflower, sweet pepper, chili pepper, peas, sweetcorn, artichoke, celeriac, tomato, olives, aubergine, beetroot, fennel,onions, spinach, chard, and cabbage.
 34. The method of claim 1 whereinsaid slice in step a) comprises one or more nuts selected from the groupconsisting of almonds, peanuts, walnuts, pecans, and brazils.
 35. Themethod of claim 1 wherein said slice in step a) comprises one or moreseeds selected from the group consisting of pumpkin, sunflower, sesame,mustard, fennel, poppy, and squash.
 36. The method of claim 1 whereinsaid slice in step a) comprises one or more pulses selected from thegroup consisting of peas, chickpeas, lentils, pinto beans, kidney beans,broad beans, butter beans, soy beans, runner beans, or black eye beans.37. The method of claim 1 wherein said slice in step a) comprises one ormore cereals selected from the group consisting of oats, wheat, sorghum,rice, millet, rye, and barley.
 38. The method of claim 1 wherein saidslice in step a) comprises one or more herbs and spices selected fromthe group consisting of basil, bay leaves, coriander, mint, cumin,cardamom, cloves, cinnamon, tarragon, dill, marjoram, garlic,lemongrass, oregano, paprika, turmeric, parsley, and pepper.
 39. Themethod of claim 1 further comprising the step of adding a real foodingredient prior to step b).
 40. The method of claim 1 wherein step b)further comprises dehydrating said slices to a starch melting pointrange in a non-oil heating medium in less than about 60 seconds andfurther dehydrating said slices in a non-oil medium starch glasstransition range in less than about an additional 50 seconds.
 41. Themethod of claim 1 wherein step b) further comprises dehydrating saidslices to a starch melting point range in a non-oil heating medium inless than about 40 seconds and further dehydrating said slices in anon-oil medium starch glass transition range in less than about anadditional 30 seconds.
 42. The method of claim 1 further comprising thestep of: c) further dehydrating said slices in a non-oil medium to amoisture content of less than about 3%.
 43. The method of claim 42wherein said non-oil medium at step c) comprises infrared radiation. 44.The method of claim 42 wherein said non-oil medium at step c) comprisesmicrowave radiation.
 45. The method of claim 42 wherein said non-oilmedium at step c) comprises hot air.
 46. The method of claim 1 whereinsaid thermal preconditioning step a) comprises a flash fry for about 7seconds to about 20 seconds in oil having a temperature of about 120° C.to about 180° C.
 47. The method of claim 1 wherein said thermalpreconditioning step a) comprises a flash fry for about 15 seconds toabout 20 seconds in oil having a temperature of about 150° C. to about160° C.
 48. The method of claim 1 wherein said thermal preconditioningat step a) comprises a dry thermal preconditioning.
 49. The method ofclaim 1 wherein said thermal preconditioning at step a) comprises a wetthermal preconditioning.
 50. The method of claim 21 wherein saidlipophilic preconditioning is of about 60 to about 120 seconds induration and wherein said food slice is brought to a temperature ofabout 75° C. to about 99° C. during said thermal preconditioning.
 51. Afood slice prepared by the method of claim
 1. 52. The food slice ofclaim 51 wherein said food slice in a finished form comprises: potato inthe amount of 30% to 70% by weight; oil in the amount of 5% to 30% byweight; vegetables or pulses in the amount of 10% to 55% by weight; andat least one other minor ingredient.
 53. The food slice of claim 52wherein said at least one other minor ingredient comprises a culinaryprepared ingredient.
 54. The food slice of claim 51 wherein saidfinished food slice comprises per 100 grams of finished food slice: lessthan 20 grams of fat; less than 5 grams of saturated fat; S less than 5grams of salt; and less than 22.5 grams of sugar.
 55. The food slice ofclaim 51 wherein said finished food slice comprises per 100 grams offinished food slice: less than 16 grams of fat; less than 1.5 grams ofsaturated fat; less than 1 gram of salt; and less than 10 grams ofsugar.
 56. A method for preparing shelf-stable food slices comprisingthe steps of: a) lipophilically preconditioning a plurality of foodslices, wherein the oil temperature of said lipophilicallypreconditioning is about 60° C. to about 99° C.; b) cooking said foodslices to a moisture level of less than 10% by weight of the finishedslice.
 57. The method of claim 56 wherein step b) comprises cooking in anon-oil medium.
 58. The method of claim 56 wherein step b) comprisescooking in an oil-based frying medium.
 59. The method of claim 56wherein the duration of said lipophilically preconditioning of step a)is about 30 seconds to about 300 seconds.
 60. The method of claim 56wherein the oil temperature of said lipophilically preconditioning ofstep a) is about 75° C. to about 99° C. and further wherein the durationof said lipophilically preconditioning is about 50 seconds to about 150seconds.
 61. The method of claim 56 wherein the oil temperature of saidlipophilically preconditioning of step a) is about 85° C. to about 95°C. and further wherein the duration of said lipophilicallypreconditioning is about 50 seconds to about 150 seconds.
 62. The methodof claim 56 wherein said lipophilically preconditioning is about 60 toabout 120 seconds in duration and wherein further said food slice isbrought to a temperature of about 60° C. to about 99° C. during saidlipophilically preconditioning.
 63. The method of claim 56 wherein thefood slices are subjected to an oil removal step after step a) andbefore step b).
 64. The method of claim 63 wherein said food slices aresubjected to a pre-drying step after oil removal and prior to thecooking step b).
 65. The method of claim 64 wherein said pre-dryingoccurs in a microwave pre-dryer.
 66. The method of claim 64 wherein saidpre-drying takes from about 5 seconds to about 90 seconds.
 67. Themethod of claim 64 wherein said pre-drying takes from about 10 secondsto about 20 seconds.
 68. The method of claim 64 wherein at least onequarter of the water content of the food product is removed duringpre-drying.
 69. The method of claim 57 wherein said cooking of step b)comprises microwave cooking.
 70. The method of claim 69 wherein themicrowave cooking of step b) comprises a first dehydration rate and asecond dehydration rate.
 71. The method of claim 70 wherein saidmicrowave cooking at step b) comprises a first dehydration rate ofbetween about 0.02 grams of moisture per gram of solid per second andabout 0.20 grams of moisture per gram of solid per second.
 72. Themethod of claim 70 wherein said microwave cooking in step b) comprises afirst dehydration rate of between about 0.06 grams of moisture per gramof solid per second and about 0.18 grams of moisture per gram of solidper second.
 73. The method of claim 70 wherein said microwave cooking atstep b) comprises a second dehydration rate of between about 0.004 gramsof moisture per gram of solid per second and about 0.08 grams ofmoisture per gram of solid per second.
 74. The method of claim 70wherein said microwave cooking in step b) comprises a second dehydrationrate of between about 0.03 grams of moisture per gram of solid persecond and about 0.06 grams of moisture per gram of solid per second.75. The method of claim 70 wherein said cooking at step b) furthercomprises a third dehydration rate of between about 0.0005 grams ofmoisture per gram of solid per second and about 0.03 grams of moistureper gram of solid per second.
 76. The method of claim 75 wherein saidthird dehydration rate is between about 0.002 grams of moisture per gramof solid per second and about 0.02 grams of moisture per gram of solidper second.
 77. The method of claim 69 wherein said microwave cooking atstep b) occurs in a rotary microwave.
 78. The method of claim 56 whereinsaid slice in step a) is a food product consisting primarily of a foodmaterial selected from the group of corn, waxy corn, oats, wheat,sorghum, rice, waxy rice, kidney beans, pinto beans, lentils, chickpea,potato, Jerusalem artichoke, yam, tapioca, yucca, tarot, sweet potato,beet, carrot, arrowroot, cassaya, and parsnip.
 79. The method of claim56 wherein said slice in step a) comprises one or more vegetablesselected from the group consisting of carrots, parsnip, sweet potato,turnip, squash, courgette, asparagus, mushroom, broccoli, cauliflower,sweet pepper, chili pepper, peas, sweet corn, artichoke, celeriac,tomato, olives, aubergine, beetroot, fennel, onions, spinach, chard, andcabbage.
 80. The method of claim 56 wherein said slice in step a)comprises one or more nuts selected from the group consisting ofalmonds, peanuts, walnuts, pecans, and brazils.
 81. The method of claim56 wherein said slice in step a) comprises one or more seeds selectedfrom the group consisting of pumpkin, sunflower, sesame, mustard,fennel, poppy, and squash.
 82. The method of claim 56 wherein said slicein step a) comprises one or more pulses selected from the groupconsisting of peas, chickpeas, lentils, pinto beans, kidney beans, broadbeans, butter beans, soy beans, runner beans, or black eye beans. 83.The method of claim 56 wherein said slice in step a) comprises one ormore cereals selected from the group consisting of oats, wheat, sorghum,rice, millet, rye, and barley.
 84. The method of claim 56 wherein saidslice in step a) comprises one or more herbs and spices selected fromthe group consisting of basil, bay leaves, coriander, mint, cumin,cardamom, cloves, cinnamon, tarragon, dill, marjoram, garlic,lemongrass, oregano, paprika, turmeric, parsley, and pepper.
 85. Themethod of claim 56 further comprising the step of: c) furtherdehydrating said slice in a non-oil medium to a moisture content of lessthan about 3%.